- By Brij Khandelwal
2025.09.20 (Vrindavan Today News): It has been almost half a century since the Dr. S. Varadarajan Committee rang the alarm bell over the fate of the Taj Mahal. The committee’s report was not an academic exercise; it was a survival manual for one of the world’s greatest monuments. It warned us about refinery fumes, industrial emissions, river pollution, and vanishing green cover. It gave us a blueprint for protecting not just the Taj, but the entire ecological fabric of the Trapezium Zone.
And what did we do with this blueprint? We butchered it, shelved it, ignored it.
A Green Belt That Never Grew
The committee recommended a protective green belt around Mathura Refinery and across the TTZ.
Successive governments promised “massive afforestation drives.” On the ground, trees are being chopped in Agra, Mathura, and Vrindavan faster than they are being planted. The green lungs of the region have been replaced by shopping malls, real estate colonies, and charade plantations that die within months. The “green buffer” is today a “grey wasteland.”
Pollution by Another Name
Industries were forced to shut down, yet the SPM levels remain dangerously high. Why? Because the government never bothered to tackle vehicular emissions, construction dust, waste burning, or illegal petha units, brick kilns. It was easier to close down small industries and pat themselves on the back than to enforce real regulation.
The TTZ Authority — born out of the Varadarajan Committee’s vision — is a toothless puppet, starved of power and funds, routinely ignored by local administrations in Agra, Mathura, Firozabad, and Bharatpur.
This is not just negligence. It is deliberate sabotage.
Yamuna: A Flowing Sewer
The Taj was meant to be mirrored in the Yamuna’s waters. Today, it stares into a black cesspool of sewage and industrial sludge. Crores have been poured into Yamuna Action Plans, but the river at Agra is biologically dead.
Not one glass of clean water flows past the Taj. Governments celebrate “Namami Gange,” but the Yamuna — the Taj’s lifeline — has been reduced to a corpse river.
Mathura Refinery: Half-Hearted Fixes
The refinery was at the center of the original concerns. The committee prescribed state-of-the-art controls, cleaner fuels, and a green belt. Decades later, the refinery runs with marginal upgrades. The green belt? A promise buried under corporate assurances and political collusion.
Taj Mahal: A National Shame in the Making
The Taj Mahal’s marble is yellowing, its surface corroding and attracting green bacterias. Every international expert who visits issues the same warning: this monument will be threatened unless the environment around it improves. Yet our governments treat the Taj like a tourist cash cow — to milk, not to protect. Tickets are sold, selfies are clicked, but behind the gleaming photographs is a monument under chemical assault.
Who Is Responsible?
The Government of India for treating the Varadarajan Committee’s recommendations as optional footnotes.
The Supreme Court and TTZ Authority for allowing selective implementation and failing to enforce accountability.
Local administrations in Agra, Mathura, Firozabad, and Bharatpur for turning a blind eye to tree felling, illegal kilns, and waste dumping.
Political leadership across parties for using the Taj as a backdrop for photo-ops, while letting it suffocate in silence.
The Final Question
How long will we keep lying to ourselves? The Taj Mahal does not need another committee, another expert report, or another court-monitored scheme. It needs political will and ruthless enforcement. Without that, the Taj will feel hurt, bruised and pale — not in centuries, but in decades.
The Varadarajan Committee warned us in the 1970s and again in 1990s. We ignored it. We are still ignoring it.
