A team of customs officers from Calcutta seized the skin of a royal Bengal tiger, along with its teeth and nails, while the animal parts were being smuggled from Bangladesh through a porous part of the border at Chapra in Nadia district on Monday night.

The officers also seized a pair of antlers belonging to a black buck from a bag abandoned by a suspected smuggler before he managed to flee towards Bangladesh. Sources said the gross value of the tiger skin would be around Rs. 1.25 crore.

Customs authorities approached the state wildlife department with the skin to find out the biological details of the animal. "We suspect that the slaughtered royal Bengal tiger most probably belonged to the Sundarbans delta in Bangladesh and smugglers were trying to sell it on the international market using the Indian route", a customs officer said.

Customs and BSF officers claimed that this was the first time a tiger skin had been seized even though there were unconfirmed reports of smuggling of such items through the Indo-Bangladesh border in Nadia and adjacent North 24-Parganas.

A senior Customs official in Calcutta said that acting on a tip-off, a team of officials led by Samir Sankar and Sanjoy Kumar, attached to the chief commissioner of customs (West Bengal zone) put up a border check ahead of Bhatgachi village in Chapra on Monday night.

"During the checking we noticed a person coming from the border side with a bulky bag. On seeing our officers approaching him, he left the bag and ran towards the border and vanished. Later we found the skin of a Royal Bengal tiger with original teeth and nails, as well as a pair of black buck antlers from the abandoned bag", a customs official said.

However, the customs said it had not ascertained the destination of the skin and the identities of local moles working with the suspected international smuggling chain behind the incident.