According to the Guangming Daily, 1,393 animal skins were confiscated in Tibet near the border with India.

Among the haul was 31 Bengali tiger skins, accounting for around one percent of the total remaining population of the species. Environmental group WWF estimates there are as few as 3,176 Bengali tigers left in the wild.

The other skins came from leopards (581), otter (778) and lynx (2). One fake tiger skin was also seized.

The General Administration of Customs said on its website that only several thousand leopards are left in Asia, indicating that a large chunk of the population has recently been wiped out.

The seizure, bound for the Tibetan capital Lhasa and valued at more than 10 million yuan (1.2 million dollars), was made in Xigaze city last October.

Customs said the haul was carried by 25 pack horses through rugged terrain across the border from India to Tibet and then changed hands.

On the Tibetan side, near Rutog, the skins were transferred to a truck which drove some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) southeast along the base of the Himalayas before customs officials pounced in Xigaze.

Three Tibetans were arrested but the Indian handlers, the organisers and the poachers are still believed to be at large.

Chinese customs said it had been working on the sting with its Indian counterparts since last July.

It was not clear over what period the animals were killed, but the newspaper said the skins were to be treated in Lhasa and then resold.

Lhasa customs officials said that one Bengali tiger skin sells for around 50,000 yuan (6,100 dollars) while leopards change hands for 10,000 yuandollars).

Much of the trade in endangered species, particularly tigers, is driven in large measure by the Chinese appetite for exotic dishes and faith in traditional medicines which use ingredients from the animals.

Conservationists say the biggest threat is the Asian medicine market, especially in China, where tiger is used as a key ingredient in various traditional remedies.

Like tigers, Asian leopards are also killed for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

The newspaper and customs said it was the largest haul since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

TERRA.WIRE