Carbon dioxide content threatening Ajanta Caves: ASI

The Ajanta Caves, a world heritage site located 5km northeast of Aurangabad, are under threat because of high carbon dioxide (CO2) content resulting from increasing human interference, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has said.

Updated on: Jul 9, 2011, 23:49:19 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Ajanta Caves, a world heritage site located 5km northeast of Aurangabad, are under threat because of high carbon dioxide (CO2) content resulting from increasing human interference, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has said.

The ASI has conducted a five-year climate monitoring study inside the caves.

The source of CO2 in the caves is exhalation by visitors. Ajanta Caves attract 6,000-7,000 tourists a day during the peak season of October to January and about 4,000 visitors a day during the rest of the year.

The CO2 content increases by 20-30% when the caves are opened for visitors.

“It is worth mentioning that with the higher relative humidity inside the caves, there is a chance of reaction between the calcium carbonate of the white pigments and CO2, changing into biocarbonates with time, thus causing loosening of the grains,” said M Singh, head of ASI regional office in Aurangabad.

The high content of CO2 has already had an impact on the ceiling paintings inside cave No 2, where white pigments from the ceiling have come off.

“For the survival of the paintings, it is essential to introduce proper visitor management at the caves,” Singh said in a research paper to be published next week.

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

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