How an indian farmer miraculously survived the attack of a sloth bear

A farmer who fought a terrifying three-hour battle with a bear has astonished medics by surviving massive head injuries caused in the attack.Victim Jube Valanti Adveppache, 58, had been picking mushrooms in one of his fields in southern India when the bear attacked without warning.Jube later told wildlife officials and police how the animal - believed to be a sloth bear - pounced on him without warning and would not let him go.

Jube says it was three hours before the bear seemed convinced he had killed him and moved off into the forests around Haliyal in Karnataka State.

He told officials he staggered nearly three miles, bleeding heavily, to get back to his village.

Hospital officials say he has been transferred from an intensive care unit to another hospital to recover.

A medic told local media: 'He is out of immediate danger.'Horrific photos of his injuries reveal horrific scars on the man's head where the bear mauled him.

One eye is closed and swollen, a thick scar from the bear's fearsome claws runs down the side of his nose.

His face and his head are covered in other cuts and bruises.

Despite their shambolic, sometimes comic appearance, sloth bears are seen as highly dangerous in India.

One bear was single-handedly responsible for 12 deaths and mutilating 24 others before it was shot and killed in Mysore.