Air, water pollution rising near Taj Mahal

India’s epic monument of love -- Taj Mahal, 195 kms south of Delhi in Agra -- is again falling prey to rising air and water pollution, eight years after the government spent Rs 220 crore to reduce pollution levels.

Updated on: Jul 1, 2010, 17:44:05 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

India’s epic monument of love -- Taj Mahal, 195 kms south of Delhi in Agra -- is again falling prey to rising air and water pollution, eight years after the government spent Rs 220 crore to reduce pollution levels.

Levels of gaseous pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NOX), which can dilute the sparkle of Taj Mahal, have crossed the 1996 levels, a decade later, after showing a falling trend till 2002. NOX levels in 2006 had been recorded at 30 units per cubic meter of air as against 22 ug/m3 in 1996.

“There is an increasing air pollution tendency beyond 2002 which may be attributed to rise in man and vehicular population,” said Nagpur based National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in a report to environment ministry.

The Environment ministry had asked NEERI to study environmental impact of eight projects, for which the Central government paid Rs 220 crore in 1998 to improve environmental quality of Taj Trapezium Zone (TPZ). Pollution in and around Taj Mahal had risen to levels that was eroding the monument in early 1990s leading to Supreme Court’s intervention.

NEERI found that the pollution levels in the zone in Agra city showed improvement till 2002 because of these projects but the situation is slipping back to where it was before the Central government projects started.

Apart from NOX, other two major air pollutants respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) is rising and was recorded 66 and 83 per cent respectively higher than the national air quality standards.

While air quality around Taj Mahal was found to be better than four other locations in Agra city, it is worse than ten major Indian cities such as Faridabad, Kolkatta, Solapur and Pune.

The report also highlighted that the government’s effort to improve underground water quality has failed to bear any results. “Salinity of underground water has not improved despite construction of Gokul barrage,” the central government institute said, in the report.

This has primarily happened because of increase in underground water extraction in and around Taj Mahal area. As a result of this, the underground water level has fallen to four meters to 44 meters in a space of seven years since 2007. The underground water was also found to be polluted because of discharge of effluents from the local industry.

NEERI had garbage was being thrown in drains even around Taj Mahal causing major water pollution and has asked the Agra municipal corporation to have a system for proper collection of garbage.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.