IIT-Delhi begins study to identify pollutants affecting Golden Temple

This comes at a time when the Punjab and Haryana High Court is hearing a petition based on a letter written by one Gursewak Singh to the Prime Minister,where he had said that pollution was taking its toll on the gold plates and marbles inside the Golden Temple. The next date for hearing in the case is July 18,when the PPCB will have to intimate the court about progress made by IIT-Delhi.

“We would collect data pertaining to various factors that cause air pollution in a radius of 10 kilometers from the Golden Temple. We would collect information pertaining to number of industries,vehicular pollution,pollution caused by the food joints,wood burning,diesel generators and other factors that cause air pollution,” said Dr Arvind Nema,who is being accompanied by her colleague Prof Mukesh Khare.

“We will have to see which components of air pollutants are precisely responsible for deterioration of the sheen of Golden Temple’s marble and metal. After identifying those components,we will suggest remedial measures,” said Nema. He added: “We will undertake Air Quality Remodelling to study effect of aspects like thermal radiations,temperature and other environment parameters to observe how pollutants settle on structures.”