An Indian TV reporter was sacked from his job after he was filmed reporting while perched on the shoulders of a man standing on ankle-deep flood. News Express channel said that what Narayan Pargaien did was “very inhuman.”

In the 40-second video posted on YouTube on Saturday, Pargaien is seen staying dry and comfortable sitting on the shoulders of a local man while reporting on the flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand.

The man, who was visibly struggling to hoist the reporter up, was a survivor of the flood that recently devastated the region, where over 800 are confirmed dead and thousands were reported displaced.

The video clip went viral online, triggering angry responses from commenters who thought the reporter acted unprofessional and disgraceful.

Nishant Chaturvedi, the head at News Express, said that they were shocked when Pargaien sent them the clip.

“What he did was very inhuman. You cannot ride on someone’s back for a story. We terminated him on Tuesday,” he told AFP.

“He said he thought he could do this. But then it means he did not use his basic sense of judgment as a human being,” he continued, adding, “You have to be a part of the people and not ride on them.”

News Express didn’t know who uploaded the clip on YouTube, although Pagaien claimed that it was the cameraman who did it.

Chaturvedi said that the network is planning to post the video on their Web site to inform viewers that it’s not the conduct that they endorse.

“Reporters are supposed to be brand ambassadors of a channel. Sorry, this is not what we advocate,” he said.

For his part, Pagaien reasoned out that it was actually the flood survivor’s idea. He claimed that he had no qualms about getting his feet wet from the flood, but the man was insistent on carrying him.

“It wasn’t my idea to begin with, but there was this man who took me to his home and asked me to report the damage he had suffered. His house was in a miserable condition and he had lost a lot in the flood, and was left with very little food and water,” he told newslaundry.com.

“We helped him with some food and some money and he was grateful to us and wanted to show me some respect, as it was the first time someone of my level had visited his house. So while crossing the river he offered to help by carrying me on his shoulder, between which, I thought of reporting the flood. We offered Rs 50 as well for the help he gave me.”

And while he admitted that what he did was “journalistically wrong,” he blamed the cameraman more.

“The report was supposed to be telecast only with footage of me chest-up. This was entirely the cameraman’s fault, who, it seems, almost tried to sabotage my career by shooting from that distance and angle and releasing the video mocking this whole incident, and making me the villain.