Vikas Kumar, 23, miraculously lived to tell the tale after his bike crashed on a road passing through thick forests near Pilibhit city in Uttar Pradesh which is packed with tigers. The young man watched the big cat maul his friends to death, managed to escape unhurt from the attack after the tiger bit into his helmet while mistaking it for his head. Vikas with his two friends Sonu and Kandhai Lal were on a single bike when the incident happened. Sonu was riding the two-wheeler while Kandhai and Vikas were pillions. Despite being warned about the presence of tigers at the entrance of the forest, the three friends decided to take the route as they wanted to reach home early. The three men were heading towards their homes when they were intercepted by two tigers. Due to the defunct headlight of their vehicle, the trio could not spot the big cats and came close to them. Within seconds, one of the tigers pounced on Vikas while the other attacked Sonu and Kandhai.
The tiger attacked Vikas' head but bit into the hard surface of his helmet. While the tiger processed the shock of biting into the helmet, Vikas managed to climb up a tree and hid there all night. The 23-year-old man saw the tigers devour one of his friends and drag the other one into the forest. The 23-year-old man said that Kandhai also made an attempt to climb up a tree but a tiger caught hold of him. Vikas recalled. "Sonu was killed in front of me. I was extremely scared but gathered courage to jump onto another tree later. I didn't move one bit, closed my eyes and started praying. I knew that if the tigers found my location, they would kill me for sure. They are known to climb trees. " Vikas said that the tigers kept roaming in the area for the entire night and retreated to the forest only at 3.30 am. In the morning, a local named Rajendra Prasad saw Vikas and alerted the authorities. Prasad recalled that Vikas was "frozen with fear almost and barely able to speak'. One half of Kandhai's body was later recovered by the villagers. Deputy director of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, Naveen Khandelwal said that they found pugmarks on two tigers on the spot. The officials suspect one of the tigers to be a sub-adult. He said that as a result of the attack, additional camera traps have been set up in the area and monitoring has been increased.