A mother bear fought an alpha male tiger at Tadoba National Park in central India to protect her cub from becoming the feline's prey.

In the scorching heat at the park, the mamma bear and her cub wanted to have a drink from a water hole called Jamun Bodi, but little did she know that the place was a marked territory of a tiger called Matkasur, reports The Washington Post. 

Matkasur, a 7-year-old alpha male tiger, was sitting in his pond to soothe himself in the 95-degree heat when the sloth bear and her cub emerged from the woods and wanted to drink water from the pond.

However, the tiger, being a highly territorial animal, chased the pair off and kept pursuing the little one, which seemed an easy prey, until the mother bear came charging at the tiger and engaged in a clash to protect her cub, reports The Washington Post.  

A group of tourists, who were watching the animals from the edge of the water hole, made a video of the incident and published it in the Facebook page of The Bamboo Forest Safari Lodge, Tadoba. 

Watch the video to know what happened next.