It appears that gone are the days when one could believe in or live by the notion that the northern region of India was good to travel all throughout the year. If anyone was believing in this flawed theory, then perhaps making a visit to the national capital during the onset of the winter season would serve the right example about the importance of maintaining healthy lungs. You’d much rather avoid Delhi and much of the northern region, particularly during this time of the year for the menacing threat of pollution, are much too hard to handle.
And now, it appears that even Agra isn’t safe from the rising threat of air pollution. In fact, it appears that so grave is the situation in the famous touristic city that there’s an air purifier installed at the Taj Mahal.
In a country where not a day goes by where one doesn’t get to experience some form of breaking news, one wonders, what could be weirder than reading about the air purifier installed at the Taj Mahal?
In fact, there was a grave need to install one at the world-famous monument, one that attracts millions from around the world, unfailingly each year.
The rising levels of air pollution in North India have engulfed some parts of Uttar Pradesh’s Agra, not so distant from the national capital of the country.
In fact, the air purifier installed at the Taj Mahal, it is confirmed, has a capacity to purify around 15 lakh cubic metre of air within 8 hours and inside a 300-meter radius. So even as the reach of the said purifier isn’t immense, it’s capacity to purify polluted air appears strong.
The same has been deployed at the majestic monument by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board keeping in mind the urgency of the moment, with the rising pollution levels reaching hazardous levels.
“Looking at the developing situation and consistent deterioration in air quality, a mobile air purifier van has been deployed at the west gate of the Taj Mahal,” Regional Officer of UPPCB Bhuvan Yadav told the Press Trust of India.
Popular Indian media platforms hung on to the story, reporting minute details about it and shared some interesting information:
The district administration, Agra Nagar Nigam and the UPPCB collaborated with telecom operator Vodafone-Idea, as part of corporate social responsibility efforts, to bring in two such air purifier vans to the city to combat pollution, the officials confirmed.
The vans were brought to Agra on October 24 and looking at the fast deteriorating air quality in the city, one of them has now been deployed near the Taj Mahal to protect it from air pollution, Yadav said.
At present there is no continuous air monitoring station around the Taj Mahal to help calculate the AQI so the magnitude of how much air has been purified cannot be determined, the officials said.
But all of that said, one can’t be blamed for feeling a tad bit surprised that we are such grave times where the condition of the environment has deteriorated to such a level that a world-famous heritage monument has to be protected and its environs energized due to the menace of air pollution.
Nonetheless, one’s got to admit that the crucial step taken toward air purification was the best decision that the authorities would’ve taken.