Calcutta High Court on Wednesday slammed the Shibpur botanical garden authorities for failing to provide an inventory of the garden’s plants and trees.

In 2002, environment activist Subhas Datta had moved a petition alleging that valuable plants and trees were being destroyed and smuggled out because of the callousness of the garden authorities. Datta had demanded an order asking the garden authorities to submit an inventory of the garden’s trees.

On Wednesday, the lawyer appearing for the garden authorities, Somen Bose, told the court that an inventory would not be possible before next March.

“The genetic nature of the plants and trees cannot be determined without seeing the flowers,” the lawyer said. “The general character of a plant depends on its flower. So, it is impossible to identify plants and trees before March, when they bear flowers.”

A division bench of Justice Pinaki Ghosh and Justice Soumen Sen expressed anger at this submission. “What are your scientists doing? Are they spending their time inside air-conditioned rooms? Why are they not helping the authorities to make the inventory?” the bench asked and directed the garden’s scientists to file an affidavit by September 21 giving details of the identification.

The bench also directed the petitioner, Datta, to send a notice to the central forest minister to make his ministry a respondent to the case.

The bench said it would ask the CBI to conduct a probe if the authorities missed the September 21 deadline.