Revenge Of The River

A Flood-swollen Yamuna Puts the Foundation of the Taj Mahal in Danger While Plans and Promises to Revive the River Gather Dust on Government Shelves.
 

- Damayanti Datta & Siraj Qureshi

On July 25, the residents of Agra woke up to a nearly forgotten sound: the white noise of the Yamuna flowing under the Ambedkar bridge near the Yamuna Kinara area. The Taj Mahal sparkled white in the distance, cleansed by the rain. Curious citizens swarmed to take pictures. Until the day before, the Yamuna riverbed was barren as a desert, with streaks of fetid black rivulets of sewage. People walked freely—to bathe, pray, wash clothes or to take their cattle for a dip—sidestepping greasy rotting things underfoot and covering their nose to fend off the foul smell.

That buzz of excitement has fizzled out. The river has been rising, touching the danger mark in five days. The water level behind the Taj has swelled, entering the compound and swamping its lush gardens. “The river is angry,” says Pahelwan Singh, 52, who sells flowers at the Mankameshwar temple, roughly 3 km from the Taj. A couple of years ago, beautiful boats plied upon it, he recalls. Every Sunday, people came to take a holy dip. “Aaj uska paani itna ganda hai, chamdi ka rog ho jaye (now the water is so dirty one would get skin disease).” The river is taking revenge for years of abuse.

FORCE OF NATURE

Disasters caused by natural and human-induced hazards destroy countless historical properties every year, writes Rohit Jigyasu, vice-president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, in his study ‘Heritage and Resilience’ presented in Geneva in May 2013. Of these, “hydro-meteorological hazards, such as floods and storms”, have had some of the most dramatic impacts in recent years: from the Ayutthaya World Heritage Site in Thailand to New York’s Statue of Liberty and UK’s prehistoric Stonehenge monument. Is the Taj vulnerable to heavy rain and flooding?