The Taj Mahal ... is getting a beauty treatment. It will involve use of Multani Mitti, widely used by women in India as face pack.

Now, why does the Taj Mahal, still the most beautiful work of architecture in the country, need a facelift? Archaeologists say the monument has started showing signs of aging. The delicate skin of the monument is getting wrinkled and the white marble is yellowing, thanks to pollution.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has already started the mud pack therapy to restore the beauty of the monument. Multani Mittii, or Fuller’s earth consists primarily of hydrous aluminium silicates or clay material.

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The work has started on the minarets by putting scaffolding around them. Mud pack would be applied next and these areas would be covered with plastic sheets. Within two or three days the Multani Mitti will dry up and its flakes will drop automatically from the surface. It would be cleaned with distilled water to further remove impurities from the marble.

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Earlier, a study on Taj Mahal was conducted by a joint team of IIT (Kanpur), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta and the Archaeological Survey of India. The report of the study said that 55 percent dust particles, 35 percent brown carbon and 10 percent black carbon particles had collected on the marble, giving it a yellowish tinge.

Soon after this report came, in April this year, the Chairman of the Standing Parliamentary Committee for Environment and Forests, Ashwini Kumar visited the Taj Mahal and clearance to beautification of Taj Mahal was given.