The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Centre to respond to the plea of an environmentalist alleging that large scale burning of municipal solid waste in Agra was turning the Taj Mahal yellow. The Green Court has issued notices to the Ministries of Environment & Urban Development, Uttar Pradesh Government, Central Pollution Control Board and others while seeking their reply in two weeks.
The green panel also restrained civic authorities from burning municipal solid waste and other waste in open in Agra and the areas around the eco-sensitive Taj Trapezium Zone.
The order came on a plea filed by Agra resident and environmentalist, DK Joshi, who claimed a joint study by IIT-Kanpur, Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Wisconsin had revealed that “brown and black carbons along with dust” were responsible for giving yellow tinge to the 17th century monument.
The plea further noted that subsequent to the report, the parliamentary standing committee on environment passed several directions to the Agra administration to curb pollution in the city. According to a study the burning of municipal solid wastes releases a high amount of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), which is responsible for damaging the aesthetics of Taj Mahal.
