Huge tiger charges at tour group in heart-stopping footage

They received the eye of the tiger — and not in the motivational 80s anthem way.

Smartphone footage has captured the heart-pounding moment that a massive tiger charged a jeep-load of tourists in India in a scene seemingly straight out of “Jumanji.”

An Indian forest official recently shared a video of the near-catastrophe on Twitter, where it has amassed nearly 158,000 views since Wednesday’s publication.

The frightening incident reportedly took place while a group of travelers was on a jeep safari in the Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve in northern Uttarakhand state.

They got a closer wildlife encounter than perhaps desired after a tiger made a dash at their vehicle.

The accompanying 20-second, POV clip, filmed by a guest from the jeep, shows a Bengal tiger snarling by the side of the road in a sighting too incredible for Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise ride.

All of a sudden, the regal beast lets out a bloodcurdling roar and charges towards the car, causing guests to shriek in terror, while the guide tries to scare it by shouting.

Meanwhile, the driver, who had been stopped at that point, frantically puts the car in drive.

Undaunted, the big cat pursues the car down the road a la the T-rex in “Jurassic Park,” before aborting the attack and vanishing back into the forest.

The clip divided viewers on Twitter with many the blaming the incident on the tourists in the vehicle. “They don’t attack like this unless provoked,” declared one critic. “These tourists def shouted or gestured at the tiger to get this reaction! Such a–holes should never be allowed at such places!”

“It is time to realise that we are visitors in their habitat,” said another. “So be a courteous one. Wild animals need peace and space.”

It’s unclear why the tiger decided to charge the jeep; however, wildlife experts suspect that it had been startled by the safari-goers presence.

“In this case, the tiger was maybe trying to cross the road and when these guys came too close, it was a sudden reaction of the tiger,” professional wildlife photographer Harsha Narasimhamurthy told the Independent.

Camilla Malvestiti, a tiger safari mentor, claimed that the Raja might’ve been performing a “mock charge,” which she described as “a warning given by the tiger not to come closer.”

“Tigers might do that when they feel someone or some animal has invaded their space,” she said.

Malvestity some of the park’s tigers have even earned the moniker “charger” due to their habit of bluff-charging vehicles.

While this bum-rush might’ve been a paper tiger, experts advise giving the park’s predators plenty of space, especially as some of the individuals have infamously “bad temperaments,” according to Narasimhamurthy.

Unfortunately, steering clear is getting harder to do: Wildlife officials report that the animals are becoming increasingly acclimated to vehicles due to the sheer amount of tourists visiting the park, literally turning these wildlife sanctuaries into a zoo.

The situation is perhaps a Catch-22 with wildlife officials claiming that these Disneyland-esque “wildlife safaris” help raise crucial funds for tiger conservation.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the subcontinent is home to an estimated minimum of 3,167 tigers, out of which 3,080 are unique individuals, 70% of the world’s wild population.

This marks a 619 more tigers from the 2018 estimates, when the number was 2,461.