Daily Times

LUCKNOW: A fresh threat from green insect’s excrement has come to the lustrous and luminous white marble of Taj Mahal which has already been stained for year with India’s polluted air.

After the green stains were seen at the back wall of Taj Mahal, a 17^th century’s monument of love, authorities ordered to solve the mystery.

Workers are hired to scrub off the dirt and green patches every day and clean the marble, but regular scrubbing of marble is damaging its shine and texture.

“A series of marble panels depicting plant motifs on the walls or reflective tiles used in this part of the monument are becoming disfigured,” Vikram the archeologist said.

The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and houses their graves and a mosque.

Indian authorities are in search of a permanent solution for this problem that green insects have created from a kind Goeldichironomus, a sort of drawn-out fly looks like a mosquito, being born in the polluted Yumna River.

Dumping ashes has built up a lot of phosphorous deposit and a heavy growth of algae causes these insects to grow even more.

“These two are the primary source of food for this particular species of insect,” said Girish Maheshwari, who heads the Department of Entomology at St. John’s College in the northern city of Agra.

This issue has been considered very serious because Taj Mahal is one of the main tourist attractions in India.

“Officials have been asked to investigate as why there is sudden increase in number of these insects and how to control their population,” Uttar Pradesh state spokesman Navneet Sehgal said.