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| Taj Mahal Facing the Brunt of Envir |
| Taj Mahal Facing the Brunt of Environmental Degradation
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| INDIA
, 5-June-2014
5:36:16 AM |
| India's tourism icon and a symbol of earthly love, the 17th century white marble mausoleum, the Taj Mahal, is a victim of both nature and man.
If the monument looks sick and pale to visitors, the reason is the dry and heavily polluted Yamuna that once formed an integral part of the Taj Mahal complex.
Standing tall in the scorching summer sun, the monument of love is enveloped in yellowish sand from the neighbouring Rajasthan desert. Any discernible visitor can tell that the summer heat is taking its toll on the Taj Mahal, the timeless monument of love, blasted by sand from the dry Yamuna bed and the dust-laden winds from the Rajasthan desert.
The gaps left by illegal mining in the Aravali ranges have raised the SPM (suspended particulate matter) in Agra. Against a standard of 100 microns per cubic metre, it remains as high as 300, touching 500 during summer months. The problem is that sandy particles rub against the monument and leave pock marks that make the surface rough, as has been pointed out by many studies.
However, conservationists say that the crisis the Taj confronts comes not merely from nature and pollution but also from people themselves - too many tourists and too many vehicles that bring them to Agra. The number of vehicles in the city has shot up from around 40,000 in 1985 when Firozabad too was part of the Agra district, to more than a million now. The opening of the Yamuna Expressway has increased vehicular traffic, while the pressure of heavy vehicles on the Delhi-Kolkatta and Delhi-Mumbai national highways passing through Agra has increased phenomenally.
Adding to its fatigue is the ever-increasing human load. From a few hundred daily some decades ago, the Taj today is daily visited by thousands. Last year six million tourists visited the fragile monument. This number does not include children below 15 years for whom entry is free. For five days in a year the entry to the monument is free for everyone.
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