Losing The Taj!

A poem in stone that once fulfilled an emperor’s fantasy of love, glory and magnificence is fighting a fierce battle for survival in the age of modernity. Danger signs are all around. Do you want to wait for the worst catastrophe to strike? Join our campaign to save the Taj Mahal

- Damayanti Datta

Taj dies if the Yamuna dies

Hydel plants, mining, domestic and industrial waste, deforestation, groundwater exhaustion, floodplain encroachment, the Yamuna is an ‘ecologically dead’ river at Agra. The Taj’s foundations are buried deep below the riverbed. Research now shows the water level is receding.

Will the Mughal tomb cave in if the Yamuna dies?

Green stains are fly specks

With the rising algae and detritus, the population of midges in the Yamuna has exploded. Their green faeces can be washed off, but the alarm has been sounded on the severe environmental degradation

A maddening rush of tourists

The Taj is reeling under footfalls. Fragile areas like the main mausoleum, the platform at the centre of the char bagh—the one extending from the main entrance towards the mausoleum—are all under severe pressure. Mass human presence creates unhealthy humidity. Sweat, oil, dirt from contact gets absorbed into the marble. The longer it remains, the harder it is to remove

Not just vandalism and graffiti

The volume of visitors places enormous pressure on the conservators who have to battle for space to carry out their work

Erosion is scarring the Taj

Flaking plaster and stained marble, missing stones and inlay work, minarets and domes crrumbling in a storm—these are all indications of a prolonged structural erosion, possibly from the rusting of concealed iron lugs and dowels used to join together stone slabs in the Taj

Blasted by sand and mining

A major menace is the erosion of marble by the sand-laden winds from the deserts of Rajasthan, and illegal, unbridled sand mining, creating deep pits in the riverbed

Carbon and dust turning the Taj dark