Reduction in air pollution plummets in Delhi-NCR due to lockdown under covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The epidemic of Novel COVID-19 was reported in India in January, 2020 and increased day by day due to the movement of people from one place to another place. The COVID-19 became a pandemic because of the mass movement of people from one part of the country to the other. The Government of India announced the nationwide lockdown with effect from the midnight of 24th March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The various provisions were made to lock down the industries, transportation, etc. if not very essential. The shifting of humans in order to contain the spread of the virus is suspected but for urgent migration, the people are put in quarantine for 14 days. Most of the activities where the people interaction is required and of not very essential were closed. As a result air quality improved significantly in the country. Similar findings have been observed in the Delhi-NCR which further corroborated by Air Quality Index (AQI) data. The mass concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2 and CO show 37-81%, 11-88%, 25-87%, 29-54% and 68% reduction in PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2 and CO concentrations, respectively in the lockdown phase, as compared to the pre-lockdown phase in Delhi-NCR. All of the major cities of Delhi-NCR analysed in this paper, had their AQI, largely within good to satisfactory categories in the lockdown phase as compare to pre-lockdown categories being poor.