"Tiger bones are largely smuggled to China for use in traditional medicines, fashion and high-end products,'' the founder of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, Belinda Wright, said.

Customs officers have seized two shipments of tiger bones and other animal parts worth $500,000 destined for use in traditional medicine in China, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The rare success against the smugglers yielded a tiger skeleton along with 320kg of scales from pangolins, rare scaly mammals that are distant relatives of the anteater and a protected species in India.

Customs officials, acting on a tip-off, seized two shipments at the international airport in Guwahati on Wednesday and on Thursday, a customs official said.

"They were meant to be air transported to Imphal in the state capital of Manipur by an Air India flight,'' he said, adding that from Manipur they were destined for neighbouring Burma and then China.

A kilo of pangolin scales is worth about 60,000 rupees ($1495) while a gram of crushed tiger bone costs about 1000 rupees ($25) in the international market, customs say. In total, the raids netted contraband worth 20 million rupees ($500,000).

On average, poachers kill 30 tigers every year in Indian reserves, with demand driven by China where pelts, claws and bones are prized in traditional medicine.

In 2008, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up a national wildlife crime prevention bureau, drawing experts from the police, environmental agencies and customs in a bid to break up the poaching network.

Tiger hunting is illegal worldwide and the trade in tiger parts is banned under a treaty binding 167 countries, including India.

"Tiger bones are largely smuggled to China for use in traditional medicines, fashion and high-end products,'' the founder of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, Belinda Wright, said.

There are estimated 1400 tigers living in the wild in India, according to conservation group WWF.

In August of 2009, an Indian delegation in Beijing asked China for full cooperation for controlling cross-border trafficking of tiger parts and to send a clearer message to smugglers, but no official agreement was reached.