A Canadian man was arrested at an Indian airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage.
Customs officials stopped the 32-year-old man during a security check at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s international airport on Monday and found “a skull with sharp teeth, resembling the jaw of a baby crocodile” wrapped in a cloth.
The skull weighed 777 grams, the customs department said in a statement on Thursday.
The man was arrested for violating India’s Wildlife Protection Act and the skull was handed over to the forest department.
Authorities registered a case against the suspect while “further investigation is underway”.
The forest department said the skull belonged to a species protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act.
“The texture, tooth pattern, well-developed bony palate, and nostrils confirmed the item as the skull of a baby crocodile,” it added.
🚨 Canadian Man Arrested at IGI Airport, New Delhi for carrying Crocodile Skull 🐊
Customs DepartmentIGI Airport, New DelhiDate: 06.01.2025
Flight and Passenger Details:•Flight Number: Air Canada (AC 051)•Route: New Delhi to Canada•Date of Departure: 06.01.2025… pic.twitter.com/qX4qX3nyqZ
— Delhi Customs (Airport & General) (@AirportGenCus) January 9, 2025
The man was scheduled to leave on an Air Canada flight on Monday when he was caught. A forest official told The Times of India that the Canadian had bought the skull in Thailand.
“The man did not possess the mandatory permission required to carry wildlife items,” Rajesh Tandon, deputy forest range officer told the newspaper. “We will conduct further lab tests to identify the subspecies.”
Last year, a 32-year-old Canadian woman was stopped at the Delhi airport for carrying horns of an unidentified animal in her luggage. The woman claimed to have picked them up during a trek in the Ladakh region.
In a similar case in March last year, a 60-year-old man was caught while attempting to smuggle a ”wildlife trophy” out of India, police said.