NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over the ‘changing colour’ of the monument of love, apparently because of pollution, the Supreme Court on Tuesday suggested that the Centre should take the assistance of experts from India and abroad to first assess the damage to the Taj Mahal and then take steps to restore it.
The monument, a Unesco World Heritage Site, had become yellowish earlier and was now turning brownish and greenish, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta noted with concern. “This is now becoming the eighth wonder of the world,” the bench observed.
“We don’t know whether you have, or perhaps don’t have, the expertise. Even if you have the expertise, you are not utilising it. Or perhaps you don’t care,” the Bench told the central government, represented by Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni.
“Perhaps we need some expert organisation from outside India unless there is a decision that the Taj has to go,” the bench said while perusing the photographs placed before it by petitioner M C Mehta.
When the court asked Nadkarni as to why the Taj Mahal’s colour had changed, he replied that the management of the monument has to be done by the Archaeological Survey of India.
The next hearing in the matter is slated for May 9.
Mehta has filed a plea seeking protection of the Taj from the ill-effects of polluting gases and deforestation in and around the area.
The court has been monitoring developments in the area to protect the historic monument which attracts millions of tourists to Agra every year.
Early this year, the court had criticised the Uttar Pradesh and central governments for not protecting the Taj Mahal and had directed the state to submit a vision document on the monument’s preservation.