News just in that the Taj Mahal is obscured by smog will come as no surprise to anyone who has visited India in this season.
When I visited in December 2019, in what felt like minutes before the COVID crisis struck, wherever I visited, Delhi, Bodh Gaya, and Varanasi, everywhere was shrouded in the smog caused by farmers burning crops. You could even see it hanging in the air in the large airport halls.
The farmers will tell you that this is the only way to clear their fields and ready them for the next season’s crops, but truthfully, it doesn’t have to be this way. It was possibly the most unpleasant and disturbing experience of pollution I’ve ever had, especially in that beautiful country.