This is the harrowing moment where a bear tragically falls off of a cliff, attacked with a volley of rocks thrown by local villagers.
It's not yet clear if the bear died following its huge fall, but the signs don't look good for this proud animal, in an incident that took place in the Drass area in the district of Kargil in India.
Here's the horrifying footage in question:One of two such heartbreaking videos, the footage of the bear falling down the cliff first appeared on Twitter, from Director of tourism Kashmir, Mahmood Ahmed Shah. "This is macabre, happened today at Drass," he said in his Twitter post, and the videos have unsurprisingly gone viral.
The footage was later shared by former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who said: "Heartbreaking & inhuman. Why invade their habitat in the first place?" She wasn't the only person to express dismay at what they were seeing.
"Horrendous. They (humans) encroach the forests and expect the wildlife to stay away. It's their home they have occupied. And on that they kill and chase away these animals. This video makes me kill a few of those cheering," added one disgusted Twitter user @docwhoshoots, and there are plenty of angry Twitter users furious at the bear attack.
A second video also circulated of another bear struggling to climb free of some barbed wire:Many people online have demanded that the heartless villagers behind the bear's death be brought to justice, and authorities have since confirmed that an investigation to trace the bear and identify the people involved in the horrific act is underway.
Deputy Commissioner, Kargil, Baseer-ul-Haq Choudhary has ordered an inquiry and teams from the wildlife and other departments have been constituted to trace the brown bear. "An FIR has been registered," Choudhary said, hoping that the people involved can be identified and sufficiently prosecuted.
