A 9-year-old white tiger died at the Bannerghatta Biological Park on Wednesday after it was attacked by two Royal Bengal Tigers on Sunday.

Shreyas, the tiger, died at around 8pm, Santosh Kumar, Director of the park said.

On Sunday, two white tigers were injured, Shreyas, more grievously than the other, after a vicious fight with the two Royal Bengal tigers ensued at the Bannerghatta Biological Park.

Director Santosh says that negligent staffers allowed the white tigers to enter the enclosure of the Bengal Tigers while opening the gates for safari vehicles to pass on Sunday afternoon.

“Shreyas had sustained severe injuries to his spinal cord and he could not even get up after the attack. He was showing signs of improvement but unfortunately, he died,” director Santosh said.

The staffers did not coordinate the opening and closing of the enclosure gates, which is why the white tigers entered the wrong enclosure.

“Tigers are very territorial animals. The staffers did not coordinate amongst themselves. Although the fight broke out between the four tigers, the park personnel swung into action and did everything possible to separate the animals,” he added.

The biological park has dismissed the negligent staff and has replaced them with others.

“The personnel deployed to open and close gates were those who were outsourced. But now we have hired highly experienced persons on a contract basis to man the gates,” he added.

The BBP has six white tigers in total and only two of them had been released into the safari area on the day of the incident. “We have launched an inquiry to find out what led to the mishap. The second tiger is doing well as it had not sustained brutal injuries like Shreyas,” he said.