38 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 13, 2018
FORCE OF NATURE
Disasters caused by natural and human-induced hazards
destroy countless historical properties every year, writes
Rohit Jigyasu, vice-president of the International Council on
Monuments and Sites, in his study ‘Heritage and Resilience’
presented in Geneva in May 2013. Of these, “hydro-meteo-
rological hazards, such as floods and storms”, have had some
of the most dramatic impacts in recent years: from the Ayut-
thaya World Heritage Site in Thailand to New York’s Statue
of Liberty and UK’s prehistoric Stonehenge monument. Is the
Taj vulnerable to heavy rain and flooding?
The biggest vulnerability of the Taj to flooding lies in its
foundation: because the Yamuna touched the monument on
one side (now the river has shrunk and moved away); because
the ground slopes toward the river bank; and because it
stands on a floodplain (soil saturated with water). Emperor
Shah Jahan was fully aware of all this. Precisely why the Taj
sits pretty along a sharp bend in the Yamuna: not just for
visual delight, but because such curves slow down a river and
reduce its thrusts and scouring (or loss of soil, often around
the foundation), explains S.C. Handa, former director of IIT-
Roorkee, who surveyed the Taj in the 1990s.
Shah Jahan chose the spot deliberately, writes court histo-
rian Abd al-Hamid Lahawri, so that his dream mausoleum
would be protected from floods, storms and erosion. The
entire structure was made on a solid bed of masonry. But
despite that, there had been problems from time to time.
Four years after its completion, Shah Jahan’s son Aurangzeb
noticed cracks in the seven underground chambers after an
unprecedented flood. To prevent a recurrence, a groin wall
was built in the position of maximum scour. Rubble pitching
was done at the base of the wall adjoining the river in the form
of rubble masonry in wooden crates. What is the condition of
the foundation now? No one knows.
The Taj Mahal has weathered at least eight hydro-
meteorological hazards between 1956 and 2018. In the cata-
clysmic flooding of 1978 in northern India, the Yamuna had
overtopped its banks and put nearly the entire old city under
water. The monument was protected by piling sandbags
around it. In 2003, the Rs 17 crore project to build a com-
plex of shopping malls, restaurants, boat club and open-air
entertainment spots adjoining the Taj had exposed it to the
same threat, with the Uttar Pradesh government narrowing
the course of the Yamuna and flood water carrying debris of
construction material. The Yamuna went through repeated
flooding, through 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2016, but to a much
lesser extent. According to the Supreme Court-appointed
monitoring committee on environment in the Taj Trape-
zium Zone (that extends 50 km outwards from the Taj), the
river has become far too shallow with silt accumulation.
Hence, a flood of the intensity of 1978 striking Agra again
could wreak havoc. The problem, though, could be resolved
if the government undertook desilting of the Yamuna, at
least for a few metres, says geologist Anil Kumar Misra,
professor at Sikkim University, Gangtok.WHO CARES FOR A RIVER
Not Haryana. After emptying the Yamuna of 98 per cent of
its water for irrigation and domestic consumption at the Ha-
thnikund Barrage, Haryana started polluting the water with
pesticides and chemical fertilisers. Almost every flooding in
the past two decades has been caused by Haryana releasing
excess water unexpectedly. On July 26, 131,000 cusecs of
water was released, making the Yamuna cross danger levels.
For that perfect picture of sunrise and sunset behind the
Taj, Hathi Ghat is the place to be in. But there is not a drop
of water in sight. A busy river port once, where the royal ele-
phants came to bathe, it now hosts a motley crowd of men and
women peddling trinkets in a carnival atmosphere. Buffaloes
and dogs loll around; washermen pound clothes in perfect
rhythm; men and women throw flowers into the puddles and
cry, “Jai Bulaki Baba ki”—the reigning deity of Hathi Ghat.
Muqsud Mian does what his ancestors have done for the
past 15 generations: wash clothes for the Mughal royals. He
does it exactly as they did it: on the banks of the Yamuna. Un-
like his ancestors, who used natural sodium bicarbonate (saji
mitti), he uses bar soaps and other detergents. Does he know
that the Supreme Court, while disposing of advocate M.C.
Mehta’s PIL on pollution around the Taj, directed that wash-
ermen would not be allowed to use the riverbed anymore?
As evening descends, the Itmad-ud-Daulah View Point,
a little distance away, becomes a blur of energy and excite-
ment. Diyas flicker to life, conch shells cast a spell. A crowd of
men, women and children chants prayers in honour of a river
that was, vowing to rescue it. “We have been holding Yamuna
aarti for the past several years to make citizens aware and
wake up the government,” says Dr Devashish Bhattacharya, aSIRAJ QURESHI