India: ASI Reports On Minaret's Tilt in Taj Mahal

NEW DELHI (NNN-Bernama) -- A minaret of the famed Taj Mahal has recorded a tilt of 3.57 cm in three decades but overall there is no significant change in heights of points lying on the main structure of the monument.

This has been revealed in an affidavit filed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in India's Supreme Court which had issued a direction in this regard in December last year.

"South west minaret remained quite stable till 1976-77 but during the past three decades, the magnitude of tilt for spike centre increased about 3.57 cm in 2009-10 compared with 1976-77," Press Trust of India (PTI) cited the affidavit filed by ASI Director General Gautam Sen Gupta.

It said the magnitude of the tilt for spike of south-west minar of the 359-year old monument has shown increasing trend when compared with past exercise results.

The affidavit also said heights of some bench marks, which lie outside the main structure, were compared against their values observed in 1940-41 and differences were plotted.

"It has been noticed that differences have slowly moved from positive to negative values over the period of time and 2011-2012 observation have shown the same trend and recorded almost the same height difference as compared to last observation epoch of 1994-95.

"Hence, there has been no significant change in heights of points which are lying outside the main structure during the latest epoch," it said.

The affidavit was filed in response to the apex court's direction for the latest survey report on the Taj Mahal in view of reports that the historical monument was facing danger to its structure owing to environmental pollution. --NNN-BERNAMA

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