GUWAHATI, June 20 � Consignments of animal parts, including tiger skulls and pangolin scales, were once again seized from an Imphal-bound flight at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi international airport today making it the third instance of such seizure by the Customs department, Guwahati in the span of last four days.
As many as five cases have been registered in these connections and the international price of the animal parts seized in the last four days has been pegged at Rs 5.21 Crore.
Terming it as one of the biggest seizures ever in the State, sources claimed that the racket was operating for the last few years and involvement of the Forest department officials of the various Northeastern States also cannot be ruled out.
Official sources said that tiger bones and skull, weighing 10 kilograms, and pangolin scales weighting 125 kilograms were seized from the cargo section today and the consignment, like the previous ones, was loaded at Dimapur, from where the flight originated.
In a similar seizure yesterday, customs officials had recovered 147 kilograms of pangolin scales and nine kilograms of tiger bones from an Imphal-bound flight.
Some parts of the endangered animals were also sent from Orissa, claimed the sources.
Another consignment of animal parts valued at over Rs 2 Crore, on way to Imphal, was seized from the airport here.
Custom officials said that all these parts were meant to be smuggled to China via Myanmar, which has a big market for such products in view of the medicinal qualities of these.
"We would take up the matter with different departments concerned to unearth the source of the consignments," a custom official stated.
