Despite itchy eyes, tourists flock to Taj Mahal

AGRA, India: Even with pollution cloaking northern India, visitors are still thronging the Taj Mahal, the shining marble mausoleum south of Delhi.

Every year around eight million people -- mostly domestic tourists -- visit the monument, built by a 17’th-century Mughal emperor for his wife. On Tuesday, with smog levels many times maximum levels, only a few of the roughly 10,000 daily visitors wore pollution masks, and most of them were foreigners.

Gildas Courtois, a French visitor, complained that he was coughing, his nose was running and that his eyes were sore. "We don’t feel comfortable with it," he told AFP. "It makes it bitter. Makes the visit bitter, because it’s a wonder, one of the wonders of the world."

He had travelled to Agra from Delhi, the choking Indian megacity of 20 million people 250 kilometres (155 miles) to the north, where the air was "very, very bad", he said.

A Japanese tourist wearing a mask at the Taj Mahal felt the same way. "Breathing dirty air affects our health directly and instantly," he said. Every winter, smoke from thousands of farm fires combine with industrial and vehicle emissions to create a toxic mix that doctors say is taking years off Indians’ lives. For the Taj Mahal, a van with a large air purifier on Tuesday was parked up, but it was around 1.5 kilometres (one mile) away in a busy car park filled with diesel buses.