India’s air pollution takes shine off once-gleaming Golden Temple

— The chronic air pollution blanketing much of northern India is now threatening the holiest shrine in the Sikh religion, making the once-gleaming walls of the Golden Temple dingy and dull.

There is little to be done short of replacing the 430-year-old temple’s goldplated walls — an expensive project already undertaken more than a century ago and then again in 1999.

To cut down on pollution, environmentalists and religious leaders have launched a campaign that includes persuading farmers to stop burning spent crops to clear their fields, removing industry from the area and cutting back on traffic. A community kitchen called a “langar” that serves up to 100,000 people free meals every day at the temple is switching from burning wood to cooking with gas.

But so far the campaign hasn’t had much impact, with change happening slowly and still no pollution monitoring equipment installed.

“As far as pollution goes, we are paying attention,” said Jaswant Singh of the State Pollution Control Board, a government regulatory authority. “We are in the process of procuring equipment so that we can check the pollution area.”

Officials have also banned burning trash or cooking with certain fuels in restaurants and communities nearby, but enforcement remains weak. The city also wants to build an electricity station to stop people from using dieselfuelled generators, but Singh could not say when that might happen.

“The pollution degrading the Golden Temple is growing,” said environmental activist Gunbir Singh, head of Eco Amritsar. “We need to do a hell of a lot of work.”

It’s unclear how much replacing the gold plating would cost, but it would surely be high.

“This is gold. The cost would be huge, but still would not be a problem,” Gunbir Singh said, suggesting Sikh devotees would rally behind the cause.