Case study of Taj Mahal

By: Kumari priti Swati kumari

Salil souravManish

Jay

Some facts about its construction It took almost twenty-five years to buildconstruction began in 1631 and ended in

1654. Behind it was the labor of 22,000 people,

including with some best-known architects, masons, artisans, in-layers and more.

To create the Taj Mahal some of the best material was sourced, these came from far and wide

The reason behind its construction

One of the most famous symbol of love.Shah Jahan, the fourth Mughal emperor of

India, commissioned the Taj Mahal, as a mausoleum for his favorite wife Mumtaj Mahal or, Arjumand Bano Begum.

Legend says that Shah Jahan was greatly affected by the death of his wife

A popular story speaks about how his hair turned a sliver white overnight when his favorite queen died.

. At one time, there were 28 types of precious and semi precious stones, but over the years, much of it has been plundered.

Of course, all this came at a cost, and that was a whopping 32 million Rupees, which is equivalent to millions of US dollars today

The land chosen was around the walled city of Agra, and belonged to Maharajah Jai Singh, near the river of Yamuna.

The designer of the building is said to be the famous Persian architect, Ustad Muhammad Effendi.

The Taj Mahal faces the river, and set within a three-sided red sandstone wall.

There are two major sandstone buildings; these are the mosque and its answer or “jawab” at the other end. The mosque has a niche that faces Mecca, while its mirror image has none.

Based on both islamic and hindu architectureTopping the structure is the magnificent

marble dome; called the onion dome.A lotus decorates the dome, and standing on

it is the beautiful and complex gold finial.The Taj Mahal has been decorated with

calligraphy, carvings, vegetable motifs and inlays.

Problem Due to acid rain, the white marble of the famous

monument began to turn yellow.It was observed in 1998 .

How does acid rain affect Taj MahalWhen sulphur pollutants fall on to buildings made

from limestone and sandstone they react with minerals in the stone to form a powdery substance that can be washed away by rain. Famous buildings like the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Taj Mahal in India and St. Paul's Cathedral in London have all been damaged by this sort of air pollution. Building materials crumble away, metals are corroded, the colour of paint is spoiled, leather is weakened and crusts form on the surface of glass. If people start reducing emissions we could save all these buildings

Reasons for the damage

There are several reasons for the problem.

The city of Agra has grown in size, industry and population.

Fumes from greater traffic have made the Taj Mahal dirty again

There are " thousands of vehicles plying the roads and emitting pollutants at an alarming level. The city roads are so congested that for a 15 minutes drive, one has to spend an hour thus consuming more fuels and emitting more pollutants."

With a greater population, there is more demand for water which has meant that the water table is dropping in the river which runs beside the monument. However, the foundations of the building are made of wood which must be kept moist to avoid subsidence

In addition the water is heavily polluted because of the discharges from factories and from human waste. This clogs up drains around the building

Illegal building and lack of development regulation have taken their toll

Steps taken in this direction Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ), a 10,400 sq. km area

around the monument were industrial business is limited. The first court challenge was made in 1984 before the Supreme Court of India. In 1996 that the Supreme Court ruled that the industries in the area were actively contributing to air pollution and ordered major industrial units to install pollution control devices. The court also ordered 292 coal-based industries to switch to natural gas or else to relocate outside the protected zone by April 30, 1997.

Steps taken in this directionIn 1998, . India's Supreme Court ordered that

more than £90 million be spent on restoring the country's most famous monument.

. Conservationists have taken a number of steps to curb pollution in Agra which is a growing manufacturing centre.

Cars have been banned from within 500 metres of the monument.

An LED display gives a running tally on air pollution.

Diesel-run rickshaws have been replaced by cleaner vehicles,

A road by-pass has been created and There has been heavy investment in a refinery

to reduce emissions.But despite these actions, a new report has

found that pollution levels have increased dramatically; so much so that emissions of nitrogen oxide have reached higher levels than those of twelve years ago.

It has been identified as a "pollution intensive zone" by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is estimated that the area around the Taj contains five times the amount of suspended particles (such as sulfur dioxide) that the Taj Mahal could handle without sustaining everlasting damage. India has been involved in a "greening" campaign particularly in regards to its national monuments.

More recently, India has begun to try and attract more tourists: this has created a dilemma how to market its best Tourist attraction without causing significant damage to it in the process.

Economic Data

According to the Press Information Bureau of the Government of India, 2,350,0000 visited the country in the year 2000 accounting for 12753.56 crores rupees (1 crore = 10 million) contribution to the foreign exchange reserves on the country. It is estimated that the Taj Mahal itself takes in 1,400,000 tourists a year. Tourism is the third largest contributor to foreign exchange following Information Technology and Textile. Still despite its favorable exchange rate and historic monuments, India is actually a net exporter of tourism and many of the tourists are either expatriate Indians returning home to see family or backpackers on limited budgets.

 

Factories that opted for relocation were obliged to re-employ workers under similar conditions and to provide a one-year bonus. The court also order that if a worker's plant were to close down, they would be entitled to six years' worth of wages in compensation. The cost of bringing the industries up to standard for the business owners were prohibitive. Hundreds of coal-burning factories have closed or converted to cleaner fuels, however many industries still skirt the Court's order. Thus there have been subsequent court challenges in order to bring about compliance with the court's previous mandates.

A further complication is that the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Agra and the Taj are located, have near daily electricity blackouts. This has had a negative effect on the functioning of the sensitive pollution monitoring system of the Taj. In April 2002, the Supreme Court ordered the Agra Heritage Fund to set up a solar power plant to meet the energy needs of the Taj Mahal and the surrounding area.

 

Direct v. Indirect Impacts: The price for Admission to the Taj Mahal is based on a

two tier system: there is one set price for Indians and another set price for Non-Indians. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has introduced measures it claims are aimed at protecting the monument from over exposure to tourists as well as raise revenues for the State. In 2000, ASI raised prices for foreigners from 15 rupees to 960 rupees. (Exchange is approximately $1 US to 48 rupees). Prices for Indians remained a modest 4 rupees. ASI claims the measures are aimed at controlling the number of tourists and thus environmental harm caused to the monument by tourists. The extra money will go towards maintaining the Taj as well as the other monuments under ASI's protection. The admittance fee is charged before one enters the Taj Mahal complex.

If in the future, tourism was covered under as a services agreement under WTO rules, it is possible that other countries could charge that India's two tiered pricing system is a barrier to trade. The matter could come up in a dispute between two other countries and none the less effect India. However India would be able to argue that it is implementing measures for environmental protection.

In June 2001, the government of India announced that it had reached a deal with the Tata group, who own the India Hotel Co. better known as the Taj hotel group. Under the deal, Tata would take over the management of the actual Taj Mahal and develop a number of state-of-the-art tourist facilities in the area. The plan met with significant disapproval from conservationists upset at the commercialization of the monument, the idea of surrounding the monument with computerized ticketing, cyber cafes and shopping malls.

The first stage of Tata's commitment has been focussed on urgent restoration including conservation of the damaged stones and restructuring the existing museum

The restaurants and shopping mall will form part of the $3.3 million second phase which will include ATMs, modern restrooms and waiting areas

Conservationists fear that boosting tourism would further contribute to the deterioration of the Taj. Some claim that massive crowds pose as much a danger to the monument as industrial pollution. Hands leave acid residues that corrode the marble and occasionally vandals try to chip off semiprecious stones or carve their initials on the walls.

Now the District Forest Department of Agra has come up with a unique solution – Tulsi (Holy Basil). The forest department believes that planting Tulsi around Taj Mahal and Agra might help in saving the monument from deteriorating.

The department is hoping to exploit the antipollutant, antioxidation and air-purifying properties of Tulsi plant.

The department launched the Tulsi plantation drive from January 2009. The public-private joint venture is expected to provide an eco-protection cover to sensitive Taj trapezium zone surrounding the 17th century monument as well as the other two world heritage monuments like the Agra Fort and Aitma-ud-Daula tomb. Tulsi was (Occinum sanctum) chosen for its anti-pollutant, anti-oxidation and air-purifying properties, making it an ideal ornamental shrub in the vicinity of the Taj.

The job is to sensitize the masses about pollution, and ensure maximum participation and follow up, he said. Meanwhile, forest department will undertake greening the Taj Forest Block Area (TFBA). Initially, the task involved planting 10,000 saplings alongside the 650 broad leaved environment friendly saplings (peepal, neem, pakar, goolar, kadamb and bargad) .

CONCLUSION As we saw ,that the government, the forest

department, the tourist department and other conservationist are all trying from their side to restore the glory of the TAJ (every heart’s call) but then they can only make the rules !

it’s the common man, the billion Indian population which has to implement these in the life of India so as to save monument’s like Taj from the bad hands of environment degradation.

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