Pollution Turning India’s Taj Mahal Yellow
For years, people living near the Taj Mahal have burned fuel and garbage. Slowly, tiny pieces of those fires are changing the marble on the Taj Mahal from bright white to brownish yellow. The pollution leaves particles that change the marble’s color.
The 17th-century monument is located in the busy, industrial city of Agra in northern India.
Researchers from two American universities and several Indian institutions led a year-long study to test the idea. They placed small pieces of clean marble on the Taj Mahal. They left them there for two months, and then studied the particles that landed on their surfaces.
Professor S.N. Tripathi at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur is one of the authors of the study. He said the particles come from many sources – especially from diesel trucks.
Mr. Tripathi said burning garbage and cow dung is another major source of discoloring organic carbon.
Especially now, when it is cold, he said, people burn almost anything to keep warm.
Over the last ten years officials have banned vehicles within 500 meters of the monument. They have also tried to support clean fuel.
But despite these measures, a 2010 study found that the non-stop growth of industry, population and traffic have only worsened air pollution in Agra.
