Morning, Saturday, January 20, 2007

Today I took the 6am train from Delhi to Agra. Wildlife SOS had kindly arranged train tickets and taxis for me before my arrival in Delhi. First stop in Agra was the Taj Mahal. This was my fourth trip to India and my first time to the Taj Mahal.

The foreigners’ fee for admission is nearly $17, the money supposedly to be used for the conservation and management of the building and grounds. At the ticket gate, there is a metal detector and security staff checking bags and frisking visitors. I got turned away for having a banana in my bag. Turns out no food is allowed on the grounds. After eating the banana, I went through the admission gate.

Buddhist monks at the Taj MahalThe first view through the gate is the most amazing; this is where you get the full sense of the design and symmetry of the Taj Mahal. After that the teeming hordes of visitors kind of wreck the view.

There was a good number of security staff at the ticket gate. And there was one security guard directing traffic into the mausoleum (below the mausoleum are the actual tombs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, for whom he built the monument). This guard also enforced the “no photography” rule in the mausoleum.

Sadhus at the Taj MahalI had read about all kind of conservation surveys and plans related to the Taj, but was mystified as to why there was no security staff to keep people from damaging the main building and the two buildings flanking it. The buildings have exquisite inlays of agate, carnelian, and other semi-precious stones. Or, at least, had. Three million visitors come each year and it looks as though at least some take little bits of the building as souvenirs. There is graffiti on the buildings and even carved into the trees in the garden. There is a little museum with some manuscript leaves and pieces of ceramic. Again, not much thought has been given to the conservation of these objects. I was there for two hours and I never saw more than the one security guard on the premises. As a former museum curator, it was baffling to me that this UNESCO World Heritage Site could be so unprotected. I couldn’t take in a banana, but I could have walked out with a chunk of the building if I’d wanted to. Go figure.

Yeah! No more dancing bears in Agra.After I left the Taj, I walked around the Taj Ganj, the bazaar area nearby. On the way back to the parking lot where my taxi was waiting, I saw a billboard for the Agra Bear Sanctuary, where I was headed next. Dancing bears used to be part of the Agra tourist experience, but now all of these bears have been rescued and live in the sanctuary.

Although there were no bears on the streets, there were plenty of dogs. And puppies. I saw more dogs in Agra than anywhere else I’ve been in India. And I saw lots and lots of puppies, something I have rarely seen elsewhere. And, the dogs didn’t look fat and healthy as they do in cities with aggressive sterilization programs. The presence of so many puppies and the poor health of the working donkeys, bullocks, camels, and ponies around the Taj Mahal depressed me. I won't even go into the aggressiveness of the guides and vendors.