Customs officials seize tiger skin at Indo-Nepal border

Panitanki, Jan 19 (ANI): Customs officials at the border village of Panitanki in West Bengal have held a man carrying a tiger skin across the Indo-Nepal border.

Additional Commissioner of Customs for the Naxalbari Division, Jyoti Kumar Bhubana, on Wednesday said that Yangchuk Thakuri, a 60-year old Nepali resident, was apprehended while trying to take the skin across the border.

"At around ten in the morning, constables of our Panitanki station were conducting a routine check when they saw a man traveling towards Nepal on a rickshaw. One of the constables was suspicious of the articles on the rickshaw and stopped it. On checking, a tiger skin was found," Bhubana said.

He added that the nine-foot long skin would sell for a minimum of 2.5 million rupees.hubana also said that this was the division's first tiger skin seizure.

"In our North Bengal customs division, we have so far seized two leopard skins, some rhino horn, but this is the first time a tiger skin has been seized," he added.

India's national animal still hovers on the brink of elimination as it faces the double threat of poaching and habitat destruction.

The official Indian tiger estimate for 2011 has risen up from the earlier count of 1411 to 1706. (ANI)