Ahead of CWG, will Taj get another 'facial'?

In 2001, just before then Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf  visited Agra, the world heritage monument was given a multani mitti 'facial' to decrease the yellowness caused by air pollution and restore its pristine white colour.

Now, ahead of the Commonwealth Games, the Taj may need it again when athletes and visitors from many countries are expected to visit Agra to see the monument.

For, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has sounded a grim warning about alarming levels of suspended particulate matter (SPM), more than five times the permissible level, around the 360-year-old monument. The scientists say high SPM level is the main culprit behind yellowness of marble.

After setting up the Taj Trapezium Zone and ordering shifting of around 300 polluting industries within a 25-kilometre radius of the monument in 1996, the SC had on November 7, 2000, directed CPCB to set up four 'Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations' at Taj Mahal, Itmad-ud-Daulah, Nunhai and Rambagh.

The latest report submitted by CPCB through advocate Vijay Panjwani to the apex court appears to suggest that the ambient air quality around Taj Mahal is getting spurious and could be the cause behind the yellowness of the white marble of Taj Mahal.

After the "no tolerance for pollution" orders of the apex court, the SPM level around the monument had shown a decline from 2002 (376 per cubic metre) till 2005 (306). But, in 2009, it rose to 334 fuelling fears that fresh measures need to be taken urgently to save Taj Mahal from getting that dull white lustre. The ideal annual level of SPM, as per the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, is 70 per cubic metre.

The monthly monitoring report about air quality in 2010 is even more alarming. In January, the SPM level around Taj was 332 and it marginally declined to 297 in February. The SPM level climbed sharply to 575 by April and maintained a high of 490 and 470 in the months of May and June.