Indian sloth bears
The man believes he was attacked by an Indian sloth bear. Despite their almost comical looks and awkward gait, they can be very effective killers according to experts
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.

In a scene remarkably similar to the bear attack in Leonardo Di Caprio's hit movie The Revenant, the predator kept breaking off the attack and then restarting it.

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.

Jube Valanti Adveppache, 58, survived a three-hour bear attack in southern India after he was mauled by a Sloth bear
Jube Valanti Adveppache, 58, survived a three-hour bear attack in southern India after he was mauled by a Sloth bear
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.