TAJ CITY POLLUTION LEVEL UP AFTER DIWALI

Agra October 26 (IANS)

 

All the hard work done by various agencies and local industries in the eco-sensitive Taj Trapezium Zone, extending over 10,000 sq km and home to numerous monumental marvels, to contain environmental pollution now seems wasted and proving counter-productive.

 

This Diwali, municipal authorities have had a tough time collecting garbage and dumping it into landfill sites already overflowing. "Most of the dry waste, particularly from fire-crackers, appears to have been burnt at selected points, raising the level of noxious gases to alarming limits. The hazy ambience is choking people and doctors confirm the queues at their clinics of people with breathing problems have been longer this year," notes environmentalist Shravan Kumar Singh.

 

The dry river bed,  Yamuna's flow reduced to a trickle, is hardly sufficient to dilute pollutants flowing down from upstream industrial clusters. The city has been facing an acute water crisis last six months. "To add to the miseries the water pipeline from the Sikandra Water Works has burst, which means for the next five to six days there would hardly be any supply of water," says Rajiv Saxena, senior media person.

 

Not just air and water pollution, a new variant "visual pollution"  is a notable contribution of the Taj city. The controversial Taj Heritage Corridor sandwiched between two world heritage monuments, the Taj and the Fort, is now a dumping ground of garbage, and an unofficial burial ground for animals. The filthy stink and the callously littered garbage are ugly eyesores for tourists.

 

The municipal body environment officer Rajiv Rathi said Saturday "against the normal 750 tons daily garbage our force ferried another 100 tons of garbage to the landfill and processing sites across the city." Despite the much hyped ho and halla of prime minister's cleanliness drive, Agra seems to be sinking into a civilisational sink.

"Leave the cantonment area and the stretch to the Taj Mahal, move around the city and you will have real 'darshan' of hell. The colonies and the mohallas are neck deep in human waste. The sewer lines are choked, the open drains are filled with leather cuttings from shoe factories numbering 500 odd," says India Rising activist Sudershan Dua. "Our team since March this year has been sprucing up areas, collecting garbage and painting and white washing civic amenities to give a cleaner look. But the city has to get involved. Every one has to put in his share to make Agra worthy of the Taj Mahal," adds Dr Anand Rai, a key member of the India Rising group.

 

Thanks to Supreme Court intervention, the industrial pollution has come down, as manufacturing units have switched over to natural gas. The Petha units too are being compelled to move out of the city to the newly developed site Petha Nagri at Kalindi Vihar. But the leather shoe making units are stalling all efforts to shift to the leather park being developed near the Jaipur -Agra highway.