WITH NO CHANGE IN AIR QUALITY, POLLUTION STILL REMAINS A WORRY FOR THE TAJ MAHAL

Agra February 21 (IANS)

Despite a slew of measures taken over the years to insulate the iconic world heritage monument Taj Mahal from the vagaries of nature and human pollution, the parameters of environmental pollution in Agra continue to remain alarming.

Local environmentalists have now demanded a comprehensive review of the action taken so far and a white paper on expenses incurred and results gained. Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society  president Surendra Sharma told IANS “people in Agra have a right to know how much money has been spent in past 30 years on environment and what have been the nett benefits. Our understanding is that the overall situation in Agra region remains much the same. A detailed white paper would help course correction and policy shifts. The Taj Mahal is a world heritage monument and citizens of India must be reassured that all is well.”

A quarter century after the historic Supreme Court intervention in the PIL filed by  eco lawyer MC Mehta to secure the 17^th century monument of love Taj Mahal in Agra, from environmental pollution, conditions remain almost the same, with hardly any discernible change in the eco-sensitive Taj Trapezium Zone.

The air quality has gone worse from being poor, as Agra continued to be among the top polluted cities in India on pollution index chart whole of 2018.

The dust level has gone up and the share of noxious gases in the ambient air dangerously high.  Though a large number of  projects and pollution abatement measures have been announced and partly implemented, the results reflect poorly, even as the city continues to participate in the smart city race.

Neither the pollution standards applicable in eco-sensitive zones have been achieved nor has the city made any progress in extending the green cover. The forest area has in fact come down to a meager six percent or less, against the national target of 33 percent. The suspended particulate matter (SPM) level remains over 350 micrograms per cubic metre, going above 600 in summer, against the 100 microgram standard. The level of noxious gases has continued to rise as a result of automobile explosion. “In the early 1980s when Firozabad was part of Agra district, the number of registered vehicles was only 40,000. But now the number has crossed a million in Agra district alone. Add Firozabad, Mathura and neighbouring Hathras districts, the scenario is frightening,” said green activist Shravan Kumar Singh.

It is strange that despite continuous monitoring by the apex court and the NGT, the overall environmental scenario in the Taj Trapezium Zone, has not shown any positive change. Rather the conditions continue to remain alarming, says River Connect Campaign activist Dr Devashish Bhattacharya. “The river Yamuna is virtually dead in Agra. The dry river-bed, and the highly polluted water that flows down the river pose serious threats to historical monuments along the banks. More than two decades of judicial activism, major policy pronouncements and projects worth millions of rupees, this Taj city remains pock-marked with mounds of garbage. Air and water pollution threaten the health of people and the world famous monuments that is visited by millions of tourists every year,” Bhattacharya adds.

The SPM rises as the river bed runs dry and the Rajasthan desert gradually expands into Uttar Pradesh. In recent years, there has also been large-scale mining in the Aravali ranges, pushing up particulate matter in the air.

In 1993, disposing of a public suit filed by eco-lawyer M.C. Mehta, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Kuldip Singh ordered far-reaching structural changes to make the 10,000 sq km eco-sensitive Taj Trapezium Zone safe for heritage monuments in Agra.  The measures to be taken were based on the 20-odd recommendations of a high-powered committee headed by eminent scientist S. Varadarajan.

Heritage conservationist Rajiv Saxena laments “top officials of various departments have collectively played a crude joke on Agra. We neither have water, nor power; the sewage system does not work, community ponds have disappeared; trees have been chopped up; and the Yamuna continues to wail and scream. Nothing has changed, conditions have worsened."

If you move around the city, a strange stink will hit you in the face. “That is because the sewer system doesn’t work efficiently. In old city areas one sees sewer overflowing and untreated waste flowing into municipal drains that open into the river Yamuna. The STPs hardly work. "Against an installed capacity of 154 million litres daily, the three Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) treat not more than 80 MLD (million litres per day) and that too, not sewage but nullah (drain) water."

When the Supreme Court bench in 1996 ordered a series of restrictions and projects to cut down environmental pollution in the Taj Trapezium, there was hope the city would transition to a higher level of sustainable development, but the directionless lethargic bureaucratic machinery is still struggling with a vision document that has to be filed in the Supreme Court next month, said Dr Harendra Gupta, an activist.

Activist Ranjan Sharma adds "the situation is actually worse, going by pollution control board data. The Yamuna is a sewage canal, and increased traffic means heightened air pollution. The recommendations of the S. Varadarajan committee have been forgotten."

The apex court wanted several rows of trees on the western periphery of the city to filter the dust-laden westerlies that blow from Rajasthan. That has not happened and greenery here has all but vanished as tall buildings now stand where community ponds once were. “The builders and colonizers have grabbed all water bodies to build malls and multi storeyed buildings. Parks have been encroached upon. In fact the historical monuments are dwarfed by illegal structures, and no one really bothers,” complained Rahul Raj, a green activist.

Agra was a showpiece of India’s serious intent on waging an environmental war to make monuments breathe freely after the Mathura Oil Refinery raised an alarm in 1978. But the haphazard growth of the urban clusters in the TTZ has created more problems than the resources could address.

Activists are hopeless. They say the war on pollution here is as good as lost. Given that authorities are still to even acknowledge the problem, the question, perhaps, is whether that war ever began.