building needs to be cleaned. The main culprit, however, is clearly air-
borne sulfur, produced by some 150 iron foundries, auto and motorcy-
cle exhaust that the electric vehicles do little to alleviate, and the huge
Mathura oil refinery 26 miles away. (The latter was built despite a par-
liamentary committee’s conclusion in 1979 that it was “the worst pos-
sible [site]... from the archaeological, ecological and environmental
points of view.”)
Sulfur, emitted at ten times India’s standard, combines with oxy-
gen and moisture in the air to produce sulfuric acid, which attacks and
discolors the Taj’s marble. Pieces of marble have begun flaking off the
priceless building, and inlays have come loose. The Taj is still unques-
tionably a magnificent queen, but it is starting to look just the tiniest
bit dowdy.
Mahesh Chandra Mehta, a prominent environmental lawyer in
India, filed a suit with India’s Supreme Court in 1984, claiming that
pollution was ruining not only the Taj but also the health of the people
of Agra. Twelve years later, in 1996, the court finally ruled in favor of
Mehta’s suit. Coal-based brick kilns were ordered shut down. The
biggest factory in Agra, Sterling Machine Tools, switched from coal to
natural gas. In all, some 292 coal-based industries were asked to
switch to gas fuels or close down by the spring of 1997. (Mehta won the
Goldman Environmental Prize in 1996 for his work protecting the
Taj.)
“The general cleanliness of Agra city has been ordered,” read one
local account, but actual progress was slow. Many small companies
lacked the funds to make the switch to natural gas. The basic cost,
according to UNESCO, was $75,000 to $100,000—a quarter of annual
sales for some of these operations.
In 1999, India’s Supreme Court again ordered recalcitrant indus-
tries to clean up. Meanwhile, Agra’s Iron Founders’ Association has
been fighting back, claiming that efficient natural gas technology is not
yet ready and that shutting down the foundries will idle thirty thousand
workers. Faced with closure, some factory workers burned their bosses
in effigy.
By 2000, the city moved cars and some small shops away from the
immediate vicinity of the Taj, but few factories were shut down. That
Asia 81