Saving Taj’s pristine splendour is not just a matter of national pride but a national emergency
It is the world’s sixth most visited heritage site and Asia’s second most sought after monument but the Taj is probably the frailest of them all as its translucent marble façade picks up every little change in the atmosphere. Being in one of the world’s most polluted cities, saving its pristine splendour is not just a matter of national pride but a national emergency. And if the activism of decades hasn’t quite yielded results, the passivity of a vision document for the next 100 years, as etched out by the Government following a severe knuckle-rap by the Supreme Court, is not good enough. It is time to hit the ground running. The Government has proposed shutting down hazardous industries, introducing green transport, setting up bio-ethanol plants, cleaning and maintaining water levels in the Yamuna and managing the waste overload. But truth be told, it is time to act in national mission mode and not leave everything entirely to the Government. Fixing accountability is immaterial as successive regimes have considered the upkeep of the Taj a peripheral issue while overusing it as a pivot of our tourist economy. We have evidently suffered from the myopic vision of the cosmetic glossing over of the trapezium area without factoring an overhaul of Agra city itself in conformity with the Taj. Every stakeholder, expert, activist, conservationist, city planner, may be even the cantonment authorities, and private resource needs to be coopted to ensure a coordinated and most importantly time-bound response. Consider the challenges at hand.
The river is still a trickle, the accumulating phosphorus in its shallow waters one of the reasons for staining of facades. Desilting needs to start immediately to take advantage of the monsoon, recharge water levels and flush out toxicities. Waste management needs to be moved up on the priority list of a city that is expanding rapidly in a haphazard amoebic manner rather than waiting for a planned and systemic infrastructure to be put in place. Though the plastic ban has been enforced, sewer lines needs to be unclogged while garbage segregation and disposal systems need to be rolled out immediately. And while enough time has been wasted on relocating polluting industries and allowing them to readjust their business schematics, now is the time to shut them down completely. Of course, VVIPs too need to take a green ride to the shrine area instead of privileged access to their diesel and petrol cars. And footfalls need to be regulated. Otherwise, Tagore’s “teardrop” will roll down the “cheek of time.” Fast.