as he was too small to face the agitated lion.
Postmortem revealed that the cub had injuries in the skull, neck and even ribs. The nature of the injury suggested that the lion, even after killing the cub, would have flung it several times.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-17/ahmedabad/31354944_1_lion-cub-gir