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Shamshuddin Khan has been organizing tours to the Taj Mahal for more than 30 years. During this time, he saw his hair whiten and the Taj Mahal became darker. Approaching the building, Khan shows the cracks and the damaged marble.
"There are shameful moments when foreign tourists ask me why the Taj Mahal is not preserved as it should, and they ask us why it is losing its color and its shine. We have no answers, "Khan said.
The Taj Mahal is one of the major tourist attractions of India. Between 2010 and 2015, he received between four and six million tourists according to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of the country.
To build the building, the emperor commissioned Rajasthani marble which has a singular characteristic: it looks pink in the morning, white in color. late and milky at night.
But the Taj Mahal began to lose its luster. The foundations are damaged, the crevbades are deeper and deeper into the marble dome of the monument. It is said that the upper parts are on the verge of collapse .
In July of last year, ecologist and lawyer MC Mehta petitioned the Supreme Court of India for a petition seeking additional efforts to save the Taj Mahal. Judges approved and ordered periodic hearings with building conservation officials
The court criticized the lethargy of officials regarding the fate of India's most famous building. "The Taj Mahal should be protected, but if the indifference of the employees persists, it should be shut down." Even if things are not done properly, the authorities should demolish "said judgment.
While very few people are willing to tolerate the demolition of the Taj Mahal, on the other hand the mere mention of this idea by the court indicates that there is a real question as to its future.
Pollution, Acid Rain, and Color Change of the Taj Mahal
MC Mehta's application to the Court was not the first. An environmentalist and a lawyer have urged Indian authorities to take steps to preserve the Taj Mahal since the mid-1980s.
At that time, environmentalists were particularly concerned about an oil refinery located in Mathura, 50 kilometers away. the. , which had begun to operate in the 1970s. In 1978, a committee of experts to study air quality in and around Agra discovered . significant amounts of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere.
Beyond the damage to public health, this contamination was also detrimental to the Taj Mahal. Sulfur dioxide, badociated with other pollutants, mixes with humidity in the atmosphere, causing acid rain .
A report prepared by UNESCO for the Government of India revealed that the monument ""
The threat to the Taj Mahal does not come only from the air, but also some water. The Yamuna River through Agra is one of the most contaminated cbads in the world . "Industries located along the river, between Delhi and Agra, dump their chemical waste directly into the river," said local environmental ecologist Brij Khandelwal.
Khandelwal further points out that Agra's wastewater goes directly to Yamuna without any treatment. Under these conditions, the fish can not survive . Thus, flies, mosquitoes and other insects that would normally be eaten by fish proliferate over dirty water and infest the surroundings of the Taj Mahal
Lack of water is another problem. The foundations of the Taj Mahal are located on more than 180 wells and wooden bases, which require water throughout the year. If the base is not watered, the wood will eventually dry to rot and break.
"If only the dome of the Taj Mahal weighs 12,500 tons, one can imagine how much the rest of the building can weigh in. The foundations of such a heavy building should still be solid." 19659010] Attempts to preserve the Taj Mahal
The court entrusted the task of keeping the Taj Mahal to K Mohan Rao, the chief of the city. Rao says that steps are being taken to reduce the amount of waste emanating from the cbads and into the houses of the city.
"Wastewater treatment plants are being installed ," he says. According to the manager, there are proposals to turn Agra into a "smart city", which involves a complete renovation of the infrastructure.
Khandelwal and Mehta are not happy, however. According to the two activists, to restore the glory of the Taj Mahal, one would have to study how the infrastructure was preserved during the Mongol Empire and the British rule in India. For this, it would take to recover the Yamuna River
But after so many decades devoted to preserving the Taj Mahal, Mehta has little hope that the monument will be saved. While the foundations weaken, Mehta fears that someday, there will be only memory left.
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