India seeks help as Taj Mahal turns green

A WORRYING change in the colour of the Taj Mahal has prompted India’s Supreme Court to order the government to seek foreign help to fix the 17th-century mausoleum.

Justices of the Supreme Court instructed the national and Uttar Pradesh state governments to bring in world experts to help preserve the landmark, saying pollution, insects and ageing had taken their toll.

“Earlier it was turning yellow and now it is becoming brown and green,” Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said in a statement.

“It is very serious. It seems [we] are helpless. It has to be saved. You can get help from experts from outside to assess the damage done and restore it.”

Officials from the Archaeology Survey of India said they were doing their best to combat the effects of pollution on the monument, but said they were powerless “unless the source of environmental pollution was dealt with”.

The court has been attempting to limit potential harm to the mausoleum since the Eighties. Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located, is subject to anti-pollution laws, and in 2006 a no-fly zone was introduced over the landmark.