Bear mauls to death man who tried to take a selfie with the injured animal

Matthew Diebel | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption People are dying for the perfect selfie People are literally risking their lives for the “gram.” So what could be so worth it to risk it all for a sensational self-portrait?

A man who stopped by the side of the road to click a selfie with an injured bear paid with his life when the animal revived and mauled him to death, according to Indian media reports.

Prabhu Bhatara, who was returning from a wedding in Odisha, a state in eastern India, had exited his vehicle to go to the bathroom when he saw the animal and decided to take a photo with it.

According to the Hindustan Times, although his companions cautioned him against doing so, Bhatara decided to approach the bear. The animal then chased him and fatally mauled him.

“Bhatara died on the spot,” forest ranger Dhanurjaya Mohapatra told the paper.

Meanwhile, the dead man’s fellow passengers used their mobile phones to video the incident rather than trying to rescue him, the paper reported. A stray dog tried to fight with the bear but failed to save the man from the bear’s grip, officials said.

According to India’s Kalinga TV station, the victim’s mutilated body was rescued from the bear after forest officials reached the spot and tranquilized the animal after the Wednesday evening incident.

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“The bear is being treated for its injuries,” Mohapatra said.

Researchers have found India had the highest rate of deaths linked to selfies from March 2014 and September 2016, according to The Washington Post. Of 127 reported selfie deaths in that period, 76 occurred in India, a study by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Indraprastha Institute of Information Delhi found.

In 2015 alone, the paper reported, Indians taking selfies died while posing in front of an oncoming train, in a boat that tipped over at a picnic, on a cliff that gave way and on the slippery edge of a canal. Also, a Japanese tourist trying to take a selfie fell down steps at the Taj Mahal, suffering fatal injuries.