How Many Visitors Can The Taj Handle?

A crush of tourists ruins the peace of the final resting place of Shah Jahan and his empress. Mismanagement by the ‘protectors’ of the Taj only adds to the chaos.

- Damayanti Datta

August 25, Saturday, 8 am. It’s cloudy, cool and surprisingly quiet outside the East Gate of the Taj Mahal: no queue, no scuffle, no fainting tourists, no ‘next to hell’ experience. A man in casual clothes tears the ticket in two. Ask him why he is not in uniform, when will digital ticketing start, should one leave the Taj in three hours, as has been announced, and he gives you a withering look. Inside, tourists drift all over Charbagh, frolic with selfie sticks and get shouted at for dipping their feet into the fountain streams. A VIP from an African republic graces the marble platform alone, smiling at multiple cameras, while rifle toting jawans shoo everyone out of the way. He is a minor VIP, so the Taj won’t be closed to commoners today.

August 26, Sunday, 10 am. A Japanese tourist is attacked by feral monkeys, one of the hundreds who create havoc among tourists, romp through the gardens, snatch things, scavenge for food, defecate on the Taj, bite and claw anyone trying to drive them away. Who is responsible for the safety of the tourists and the Taj? Both the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Police claim that they know nothing about the incident.

August 28, Tuesday, 2 pm. Members of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the CISF break into a fight near the mausoleum chamber of the Taj, in full view of tourists. At the centre of the discord is a video gone viral recently. It shows an ASI employee taking money from a foreign tourist—and flashing his torch to show the tourist precious stones inside the crypt—a punishable offence. After rounds of blame games and wrangling over who was responsible for what and who leaked the video, the ASI employees withdraw for the day.

GUESTS AT TAJ