World Environment Day: How do we save Taj Mahal from pollution?

How do we save the Taj Mahal from further discoloration? And who should be held more accountable?

Clean up the sewage drain that has become the Yamuna.

Major desilting work of the river is required on an urgent basis.

We need non-polluting industries in Agra.

Waste management is a major issue in the city.

Artificial illumination around the Taj Mahal is not a pollutant.

Electric cremation has to be made compulsory.

Agra and Mathura should become part of NCR.

A massive plantation drive is the need of the hour.

We should build a metro.

There should be one more company to treat biomedical waste.

Hotels and emporiums are hardly the culprit.

Why don't the cantonment denizens have any say in Agra's governance?

What about Green construction?

At the multiple-stakeholder workshop held in Agra on June 3 to announce the Taj Mahal Declaration—in the run-up to World Environment Day on June 5—questions, suggestions and entreaties from locals MPs, MLAs, NGOs, district administration officials, ASI and pollution control board functionaries, broadly reflected a city in crisis. Or how Agra has become a monumental tourist overkill, as harried denizens of the city grapple with acute water shortage. While the post-workshop meeting—chaired by Mahesh Sharma, minister of state for culture and environment, forest and climate change along with members of the Taj Trapezium Zone, ASI and officials from the United Nations Environment Programme—pledged to make the 500m radius around the Taj Mahal "litter-free" and take immediate steps to ban single-use plastics, it was more than evident that just trying to be plastic-free is hardly enough to address the pollution fracas playing out around the 17th century mausoleum.

Taj Mahal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is also considered to be Asia's second most visited tourist attraction after Angkor Wat in Cambodia. But it is situated in the 8th most polluted city in the world. In the 1980s, there was a petition filed in the Supreme Court as to how the once ivory-white marble of the Taj was turning yellow. On May 1 this year, a Supreme Court bench said the monument is now turning green after yellowing for many years.

India this year is the global host of the UN-backed World Environment Day whose theme is "Beat Plastic Pollution". There is indeed a global push to combat pollution from single-use plastics which include disposable items like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers and water bottles. The Taj Declaration committed to segregating plastic waste generated near the historic monument for recycling and immediately take steps to reduce single-use plastics in the presence of UN Environment Programme Executive Director Erik Solheim and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador Diya Mirza. While these commitments are of a non-binding nature, Sharma was emphatic when he said, "it will be strictly enforced...what we are talking today will actually be implemented in the frontlines." He said how we need to more proactively "restrict, reuse, recyle, re-collect, redesign and remanufacture" the use of plastic.

But the problem of environmental pollution around Taj is much more deep-seated and needs strategic planning on multiple levels. More importantly, the tardy implementation of already existing environmental regulations needs to be seriously looked at. For example, petrol and diesel vehicles have been banned in the 500m radius of the Taj Mahal. On June 3, the ban did not appear so mandatory. Perhaps, the diktat should apply on days of VIP visits as well apart from restricting the indulgent use of 200ml Bisleri bottles during high-level meetings and conferences.