White, Brown or Green?

The Taj Mahal, one of the World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO, is changing colours. But isn’t that its speciality, changing colours during the course of the day? Actually it is.

A few years ago, you all might have heard The Taj turning yellow because of the increasing pollution. Now it is turning brown and green. This pollution was, or IS caused by the industries located near the River Yamuna. These industries leave a ton of smoke into the atmosphere and also released effluents into the Yamuna. This, in turn polluted the river water. Yamuna has a lot of settlements on its banks and they depend upon this river water for the domestic activities.

The Taj Mahal in 1992 (left) and in 2018 (right) (Courtesy by telegraph.co.uk)

The most interesting fact is that the authorities, who are responsible for the maintenance of the monument, are bothered about this now. They do not know that this started taking place a few years back. No one was bothered about it then. When the industries were set up on the banks of Yamuna, people protested to shut it down. The media reported this issue on their channels for a few days, but then these ‘sensationalists’ went on for more ‘sensational’ news.

I have a question for you readers- When you feel that you are about to catch a cold, what do you do? Do you wait for it to take effect or do you take a preventive measure? Take a preventive measure, isn’t it? That is what I am trying to say. The authorities responsible for its maintenance waited for the situation to become worse.

Workers cleaning the Taj Mahal (Courtesy by telegraph.co.uk)

Now the authorities are running crazy to find an international experts to save this World Heritage Site.