The Taj Mahal Is Wasting Away, And it May Soon Hit the Point of no Return

The saying goes that the Taj Mahal is pinkish in the morning, milky white in the evening, and golden when the moon shines. Though this may once have been true for the famously pristine marble monument, a mixture of pollution and poor management has now burdened the Taj with a 24-hour layer of yellowy-brown. Condemning the “lethargy” of restoration efforts, India’s Supreme Court recently told the government to restore the Taj or demolish it .

Located in Agra, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the Taj Mahal is one of the most iconically beautiful buildings in the world. Built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a testament to his grief, following the death of his first wife Mumtaz Mahal, Rabindranath Tagore called it “a tear running down the cheek of time”.

The Taj was constructed of translucent white marble, brought to Agra from the north-west Indian region of Rajasthan. It was then inlaid with semiprecious stones, including jasper, jade, turquoise, lapis lazuli, sapphire and carnelian. The whole riverside complex, including the gardens and surrounding sandstone walls, was finished in 1653.

In happier times the Taj was a monument of renowned purity. ( CC0)

Over the last four centuries the Taj has aged and darkened as a result of natural oxidation processes – the marble equivalent of rust – but it has been given no help by its hostile surroundings. It has been drenched in acid rain, coated in soot from industrial and domestic chimneys, and eroded by atmospheric pollutants.

Air pollution in Indian cities is legendary, and Agra is no exception. As in many Asian cities, increasing car ownership has caused traffic to surge, while dirty air seeps from Agra’s oil refinery and tannery chimneys. These pollutants – sulphur dioxide, Nox gases, and mainly carbon-based particulates – have steadily weathered and eroded the Taj’s brilliant white façade, giving it a yellow sheen. Despite the establishment of a 4,000 square mile protective area around the site, ( the Taj Trapezium Zone ), within which emissions are supposedly strictly controlled, photographs show a marked deterioration in the Taj’s condition over the last few years.

Legal emission limits have been long contested by developers and are widely ignored. Smoky funeral pyres are lit, and piles of rubbish are regularly burned very close to the buildings. Pollution from the Yamuna River presents a further challenge. Untreated sewage and industrial waste pours in from the city, creating nutrient-rich waters. These nutrients are then picked up by the wind and deposited in the Taj’s increasingly porous stonework, allowing river-derived microorganisms to thrive on its surfaces, coloring them green.

Allegedly, excrement from the many insects that thrive in the contaminated river water has hastened the damage, but the effect is surely negligible compared to that of fossil fuel-derived sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

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