The Taj Heritage Corridor

In 2003 I was reporting for The Times of India from Lucknow. In the months from June to October I co-broke the Taj Heritage Corridor story, and in the same period I reported on damage already done to the Taj, on pollution at the monument, and on the threat to Fatehpur Sikri from stone quarries.

The first report in the linked series, published on 20 June 2003, ran under the headline "Taj making way for mall and Appu Ghar". The next day I reported that there was "no check on pollution levels near Taj". Later that week, on 26 June, a follow-up from Lucknow was published as "Vital queries remain unanswered".

On 4 July the paper published "Taj corridor fiasco: CM's claim rebutted". In mid-August the Archaeological Survey of India was on the record in "ASI rings alarm bell, says Taj already damaged". Early in September the reporting turned to the nearby monument of Fatehpur Sikri, in "Stone quarries threaten Fatehpur Sikri". The series continued into the autumn: "Maya may have rung Taj death" on 26 September, and "When state's discretion almost sank the Taj" on 10 October.

Those eight reports are the public record of the investigation that is still online. They should be read on The Times of India site, where they were first published under my byline. The typographic cards on this page stand in only where the live article has no unique photograph.