Taj Mahal discolouration triggers call for corrective expertise

India's supreme court has directed the country's federal government to invite international experts to fix the "serious" change in colour due to pollution in the once-gleaming, white marble of the iconic Taj Mahal.

“Earlier it was turning yellow, and now it is becoming brown and green. It seems you [the government] are helpless,” a two-judge bench declared on Tuesday.

Responding to a public interest petition by an environmental activist concerned over the deteriorating state of one of the world’s seven wonders, the court directed the government to get overseas help to assess the damage to the Taj caused by pollution and to reverse it.

It severely castigated the authorities over their “lack of will and expertise” in dealing with pollution-related problems plaguing the 17th-century monument built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum to his wife, which daily attracts more than 70,000 visitors.

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In an attempt at mitigating the damage, environmentalists claim the problem has steadily worsened and that the monument’s marble is being steadily corroded.

Sewage insects

The monument’s latest mud treatment began in January, but clusters of insects that breed in sewage in the nearby garbage-choked Yamuna river excrete corrosive waste on to the building, badly staining it. Smoke and harmful pollutants from hundreds of factories near the Taj and from household generators operating on kerosene and diesel are further damaging the monument.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has disclosed that 14 of the world's 15 most polluted cities are in India, the worst of them being the industrial city of Kanpur, 500km southeast of New Delhi.

The WHO’s global air pollution database, covering over 4,000 cities in 100 countries, released in Geneva on Wednesday revealed that the 14 Indian metropolises concerned had the highest concentration of PM2.5.

These are fine particulate matter 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter and are linked to high incidences of respiratory ailments, lung cancer and heart disease.

In comparison, one strand of human hair is about 100 micrometres, so some 40 fine PM-2 particles can be placed on its width and ingested.

Delhi was ranked at number six in the WHO report. Last November, however, PM2.5 levels in parts of the city touched 1,000, which was equivalent to its residents smoking at least 50 non-filter cigarettes per day.