Growing Human Load Seen As Threat To The Taj

Surendra Sharma of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society wants a graded system of entry tickets with those paying the highest amount being allowed to enter the main structure of the mausoleum.

"Those who pay less should not be allowed beyond the central tank. And for the masses, let there be free entry till the main gate or the forecourt, from where they can have a distant glimpse of the Taj Mahal," Sharma.

Historian Amit Mukherjea and others also feel some system has to be evolved to regulate the flow, "may be a waiting list on the first-come-first-served basis could be the answer".

This would indirectly help the Agra hotels because tourists would then have to stay longer in Agra, waiting for their turn to see the Taj.

So while the monument's battle with industrial pollution may be over thanks to a series of drastic measures by the Supreme Court, the human load is becoming a threat to the Taj complex along with the onslaught of nature in the form of dust from neighbouring Rajasthan desert and the dry Yamuna riverbed.

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