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{/googleAds} The Taj Mahal pollution has been in public focus for the past two months after two American universities in collaboration with IIT Kanpur published details of their two year study on the yellowing of the Taj Mahal due to pollutants.

If the divisional commissioner Pradip Bhatnagar is around he will undoubtedly flaunt his latest order to ban cow dung cake burning in the city. The municipal commissioner Indra Vikram Singh will of course try to highlight his cleanliness efforts around the 17th century monument of love, as also banning use of polythene bags.

Researchers of two US universities and IIT Kanpur, in their recent report had said the white marble was turning from white to brownish yellow. They identified burnt fuel and garbage particles. Prof. SN Tripathi of IIT Kanpur associated with the study, said the dirt particles came from many sources especially diesel vehicles, a chief source of black carbon and organic carbon emitted from cow dung burning.

A parliamentary standing committee has now asked the Agra district administration to take appropriate measures to bring down the pollution level in the vicinity of the Taj Mahal.

Local environmentalists and conservationists are not happy with governmental efforts to contain environmental pollution in the city. The authorities concerned have failed to shift the Taj Ganj cremation ground adjacent to the monument. Each day scores of people are cremated and the gases along with soot of the smoke settles on the monument, pointed out eco-activist Shravan Kumar Singh. The local bodies have failed to persuade people to use the electric crematorium in the neighborhood.

"On some days the number of cremations at the Taj Ganj shamshan ghat goes up to 100."

Banning cow dung cakes is a case of distorted priorities, declares, activist Dr. Anand Rai. The Supreme Court had asked the civic authorities to shift dairies from the city. This directive is long hanging fire, as no one wants to antagonize the strong dairy walas lobby. Similarly, the apex court had asked for shifting of dhobhi ghat. The coal using Petha units in the city were also to be shifted, but the administration has not shown the required will. The river police experiment never got off the ground, Rai added.

The city is littered with heaps of leather cuttings from shoe factories, and most of it is openly burnt. "The state pollution control board officials have been sending out notices to the factories, but nothing has been done to stop this practice. Similarly a large number of chemical factories and electro-plating units, the leather tanneries, the sari-dyeing units in Mathura, openly discharge huge quantities of waste into the Yamuna, but this does not bother the authorities. The cow dung use, they want to ban in the city because the commissioner said making cow dung cakes and sticking them on walls caused visual pollution," said activist Narendra Varun.

The high suspended particulates matter in the ambient air of the city, identified as the chief source of trouble hurting the Taj Mahal, according to researchers of the IIT Kanpur and some US university, is the result of the dry Yamuna bed. "For most part of the year the river flows as a sewage canal, without water," says activist Naresh Paras. The need is to maintain a minimum flow in the river round the year, to bring down the SPM level, he added.

The district authorities have failed to contain air pollution from increasing number of diesel fired heavy vehicles. "Each day thousands of trucks pass through Agra, from Delhi to Kolkatta, Mumbai, down south, leaving behind high level of emissions. The Yamuna Expressway has also increased vehicular traffic. Ideally there is need to check entry of vehicles into the city. But this problem has not been addressed," says senior media person Rajiv Saxena who specializes in heritage conservation.

The high powered experts committee headed by Dr. S Varadrajan in 1993, by the apex court had given 20 odd recommendations in its voluminous report. Some have been implemented like closure of polluting industries and use of natural gas by iron foundries and glass units of Firozabad. But nothing has been done to rejuvenate the river Yamuna, introduce alternative means of public transport like a local train service, uninterrupted power supply to the Taj Trapezium Zone spread over 10,000 sq km. Forest cover too is disappearing fast making way for concrete structures. The water bodies, that helped to keep pollutants in check and be a source of water, have disappeared, laments senior environmentalist DK Joshi, a member of the Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee.