Customs officers in south India discovered several sets of teeth belonging to big cats in a package at Chennai International Airport.

Air Customs officials seized three specimens of canine teeth belonging to the genus Panthera that were smuggled to India from Dubai from an Emirates flight from an airport in southern India's Telangana on December 20.

The genus includes big cats such as tigers, lions and jaguars amongst others.

Visuals show scrunched up tissue papers being retrieved from one of the passenger seats on the flight. They reveal three canine teeth and ash-like powder that are later seized by the Customs officials.

According to Customs, intelligence was received that gold, wildlife and animal parts were likely to be smuggled through Emirates flight EK-544, which arrived from Dubai on the morning of December 20.

On rummaging, two scrunched up tissue papers were found concealed inside the hollow pipe of one of the seats. The first tissue ball contained two animal teeth. The second one contained a single tooth along with an ash-like powder. A total of three teeth were recovered, a statement from Commissioner of Customs, Chennai International Airport said.

After the recovery, a Wild Life Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) officer conducted a morphological examination of the animal teeth and identified them as 'Canine Teeth' of the genus 'Panthera'. Each tooth is over 8 centimetres long.

The teeth and the ash-like powder have been sent to the Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation, Tambaram, Chennai for identification of species.

Air Customs officials seized three specimens of canine teeth belonging to the genus Panthera that were smuggled to India from Dubai from an Emirates flight from an airport in southern India's Telangana on December 20. The seizure took place at the Chennai International airport.

Visuals show scrunched up tissue papers being retrieved from one of the passenger seats on the flight. They reveal three canine teeth and ash-like powder that are later seized by the Customs officials.

According to Customs, intelligence was received that gold, wildlife and animal parts were likely to be smuggled through Emirates flight EK-544, which arrived from Dubai on December 20 morning.

On rummaging, two scrunched up tissue papers were found concealed inside the hollow pipe of one of the seats. The first tissue ball contained two animal teeth. The second one contained a single tooth along with an ash-like powder. A total of three teeth were recovered, a statement from Commissioner of Customs, Chennai International Airport said.

After the recovery, a Wild Life Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) officer conducted a morphological examination of the animal teeth and identified the same as 'Canine Teeth' of the genus 'Panthera'. Each tooth is over 8 centimetres long.

The genus includes big cats such as tigers, lions and jaguars amongst others. Panthera species are listed under schedule l of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and are also listed under Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix I.

The three teeth and powder have been seized under the Customs Act read with the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.

The teeth and the ash-like powder have been sent to the Advanced Institute for Wildlife Conservation, Tambaram, Chennai for identification of species. Big cat teeth are usually sold as lucky charm lockets and are quite expensive.