By IANS
Chandigarh : The surroundings of the Harmandar Sahib, known as the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine, will be made pollution-free to prevent the corrosion of the pure gold plate on the outer walls of the Amritsar shrine.
“The Punjab government is alarmed at reports of damage being done to the historic shrine due to rising pollution levels around the Golden Temple,” Environment and Science and Technology Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said Monday.
“The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has been asked to demarcate a pollution-free zone around it in which no vehicle would be allowed and all those activities that create smoke will be barred,” he said here.
“It is imperative for all citizens to save the Golden Temple and I expect cooperation from every quarter in this campaign.”
The layers of gold that adorn the upper part of the magnificent 17th century monument are gradually losing their sheen due to pollution.
The 24-carat gold of canopy over the sanctum sanctorum has started turning dark at several places. The shrine management has already expressed its concern over it.
The entire gold sheet of the shrine was replaced in 1999 – after three years of laborious workmanship – but the hundreds of kilos of gold has started to turn black.
The Sikh community internationally had got together with Sikhs and religious bodies in the state to get the gold layer of the shrine changed as the time since its construction was completed in 1604 had taken its toll.
Hundreds of kilograms of gold were used in re-laying the gold sheet over the shrine.
There are gold leaf layers on the dome of the shrine and its upper storey outer and inner walls.
The PPCB this year installed four pollution-monitoring gadgets in buildings around the sanctum sanctorum.
“We wanted to monitor the pollution in this area. Most of this was from smoke-emitting auto-rickshaws, hotels in the vicinity and small-time working units like those of goldsmiths and blacksmiths,” a pollution board official told IANS.
Mughal emperor Abkar donated land for the temple to fourth Sikh Guru Ram Dass in the late 16th century. The shrine was completed in 1604, during the time of the fifth Sikh Guru Arjun Dev.
In 1830, Punjab’s king Maharaja Ranjit Singh donated 100 kg of gold for gold-plating the outer walls of the shrine. It was done on copper sheets. That was when it got its more popular name, Suvarna Mandir or Golden Temple.
Some decades later, the upper part of the building was replaced by layers of gold leaf. In the mid-1990s, the renovation of the shrine started and the entire gold was replaced. A lot of the gold used was donated by devotees in the form of ornaments.