Number of domestic visitors to ticketed monuments India FY 2023
The golden triangle
Advertisement campaigns such as Incredible India has increased the tourist footfall in both foreign and domestic tourists alike that visit this white wonder and its surroundings. The Taj Mahal had a foreign tourist footfall of nearly 645 thousand in the fiscal year 2020. The most famous tourist route that promises to cover most of the famous monuments is aptly called India’s golden triangle, which covers the major cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.
The Taj Mahal’s decay
In recent years, there has been concern regarding preserving the pristine color of the white-marble structure. The increasing levels of air pollution in Agra, in addition to contamination from garbage-strewn waters of the Yamuna are detrimental to the marble structure. Smoke and toxic effluents from nearby factories that are corrosive in nature continue staining the white marble. Therefore, the Archaeological Survey of India, the body that manages historical sites in the country, has restricted the number of visitors to 40,000 per day. While this was implemented mainly for environmental reasons, it also prevents stampede-like situations, which have led to deaths in others places of importance countrywide in previous years.