Villagers from a small district in Korba, located in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, are currently mourning one of their own after a recent animal attack. Pintawar Singh was trampled to death by elephants while tending his cattle—many have suggested this may have been an act of retaliation from the herd after the village killed one of their young calves.

According to Newsweek, the villagers allegedly killed the calf earlier in the week and buried it in Bania. Officials have speculated that this incident may have arisen after this particular herd of elephants damaged 22 acres of crops in just two days—thereby disturbing the farmers’ plans to make use of the area’s natural resources. 

Of course, many have argued that these crop raids only occur because elephant herds are forced out of their habitats and must seek food and water elsewhere.

Sure enough, human-elephant conflict has been on the rise in India over the past few decades. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has also confirmed that crop raiding is almost always the primary source for conflict. The non-profit organisation stated, “When elephants and humans interact, there is conflict from crop raiding, injuries and deaths to humans caused by elephants, and elephants being killed by humans for reasons other than ivory and habitat degradation.”

The WWF continued: “Elephants cause damage amounting from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars. Every year, 100 humans (in some years it may be 300 people) and 40-50 elephants are killed during crop raiding in India.”

In this case, the one-year-old’s herd of 44 elephants entered the nearby Devmatti village and trampled Singh to death. Newsweek has further reported that, since the incident, officials uncovered the calf’s body from a farm in Bania, where it had been buried and covered with paddy to hide it. It is unclear if Singh himself was involved in the young elephant’s death.

Duncan McNair, founder and CEO of the Save The Asian Elephants charity, told the publication: “Yet another violent and needless death of a wild Asian elephant in Chhattisgarh state in central India. It’s a terrible area for elephants, killed by man in many ways. Undoubtedly, this was retaliatory action by the herd upon the very person who took the life of one of their young, seeking him out and those around him for retribution.”

This would not be the first time an animal has sought out an individual solely for the purpose of revenge or retribution. In March 2016, a tiger stalked and killed a poacher named Baby—evidently, the mammal had been seeking revenge for the murder of his tigress partner mere months earlier.

In another tragic incident that took place in June 2022 in eastern India, Maya Murmu was at a well drawing water when an elephant appeared out of the blue and trampled her to death. Not long after, as Murmu’s family gathered for her funeral, all of a sudden, the exact same elephant reappeared, lifted the dead woman’s body up into the air and trampled it once more.

So, if you’ve ever considered crossing an elephant, remember—they never forget a face.

On 10 June 2022, an elephant attacked a village in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district in India and killed a 70-year-old woman. It later came back, still enraged and trampled her corpse furiously at her funeral.

The attack is believed to have been in response to poaching incidents that may have occurred at some point prior to the horrific event. But this vicious revenge killing isn’t the only one of its kind to have happened in the past. Back in 2016, a tiger in Kerala mauled a poacher—who later died in the hospital—after it was revealed that he had killed its partner. Both of these incidents have even gone viral on TikTok, with users making memes and reaction videos out of the news:

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On Monday 10 June 2016, reports started circulating in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district that a tiger had killed a poacher out of revenge. This series of events began when forest officials in Palathdiyar arrested a man named Thamby for illicit activities in the jungle. He had also been accused of killing a tiger earlier in the year.

One member of Thamby’s group was an infamous poacher named Baby, who was killed by a tiger in March 2016. When arrested, Thamby confessed that his group had killed a tigress in February of the same year.

Ranni forest ranger KA Saju told The News Minute, “It was on 2 March that Baby was attacked and killed by the tiger. When we nabbed Thamby, he told us that they had killed a tigress on 27 February […] four days later, the group once again visited the same area to prepare arrack. Baby was alone for a while when the others went to get some vessels. It is then that one tiger attacked Baby. He was taken to a hospital but died on his way.”

Thamby later told police that the tiger that had attacked Baby could very well have been the partner of the tigress they had killed in February, implying that the carnivore had exacted a revenge killing on the poacher.

KA Saju was sceptical about these claims, however. “Thamby said it casually and we don’t have any proof of it […] Being a forest official for so many years, I have never heard of a tiger taking revenge for its partner’s death,” he admitted. “It may have happened but we are not sure about it.”

The argument on whether animals can hold grudges isn’t new.

Animal Planet’s predator expert David Salmoni told TIME that, “That tiger could have been surrounded by 10,000 people,” and if the animal had a mission, “it [would] avoid all of those people and just to go to those three people. There’s nothing more focused than a tiger who wants to kill something.”

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He went into further detail, highlighting that what we see as a grudge can actually be conditional reinforcement in the carnivore’s case. “Any animal that can be trained can remember, and if you can remember, you can hold a grudge,” he explained.

According to Asiannet News, even though the tiger killed Baby, it continued to go after humans in the area. Tiger attacks became a regular occurence and CCTV that was installed confirmed the presence of a tiger. The Forest Department installed traps but they had had no luck in capturing the beast at the time of reporting.

What happened to the tiger remains to be seen, but from now on maybe you’ll think twice before provoking your cat or dog. Food for thought.