NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has caught Uttar Pradesh government making false claims on planting of trees in Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) to protect Taj Mahal from pollution. It came to light on Monday after a two-member panel submitted its report which said that the state government’s claim of having planted 15,000 trees in TTZ surrounding the UNESCO world heritage site was found to be false on physical verification.

The panel’s report said not even one sapling has been planted to compensate felling of trees in the area around the white marble mausoleum. As per the apex court’s order the state government has to plant over 2.58 lakh plants for which 790 hectare of land is required.

“We had some kind of hunch and our hunch has been proved correct. Money is being eaten away and no plantation is being done. It has become a fertile ground for corruption. You are not following our order on forestation,” said a bench of Justices T S Thakur and C Nagappan.

The bench said it intended to order CBI probe but refrained from passing the order after advocate Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for the state government, apologised for giving wrong information on affidavit.

“We are not happy with the way the state government has dealt with the issue of compensatory forestation. There is a large gap between the number of saplings to be planted as per our order and actual plantation. We are also not happy with the manner in which officials filed affidavit in a caviler manner and in which false assertions were made,” the bench said.

The bench also raised question how over Rs one crore was spent by the government for forestation purpose when there is nothing to show on the ground.

It asked the state to identify the erring officials who defied court orders and prosecute them. It also asked the state government to find land for planting of trees after advocate A D N Rao, appearing for central empowered committee, told the bench there was no land for plantation of trees.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the Centre, said plantation was not done by the state government and it admitted its false claim only after physical verification.

Taj Trapezium Zone is a 10,400 sq km trapezium-shaped area covering five districts of Agra region. The TTZ comprises over 40 protected monuments including three World Heritage Sites — Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.

The court has been monitoring the case for the last 31 years after it was contended that growing pollution level in the city posed serious danger to the Taj. It has from time to time allowed the state government to cut down trees for purposesof creating infrastructure, including widening of roads, with a direction that sufficient number of saplings would be planted to compensate for the loss of trees.