21-Day Lockdown in India Dramatically Reduced Air Pollution Indices in Lucknow and New Delhi, India

In December 2019, the outbreak of viral disease labeled as Novel Coronavirus started in Wuhan, China, which later came to be known as Covid-19. The disease has spread in almost every part of the world and has been declared a global pandemic in March 2020 by World Health Organization (WHO). The coron...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology 2020-07, Vol.105 (1), p.9-17
Main Authors: Srivastava, Sudhakar, Kumar, Amit, Bauddh, Kuldeep, Gautam, Alok Sagar, Kumar, Sanjeev
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air Pollutants - analysis
Air pollution
Air quality
Airborne particulates
Aquatic Pollution
Carbon monoxide
Cities - statistics & numerical data
Communicable Disease Control - statistics & numerical data
Coronavirus Infections - prevention & control
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecotoxicology
Environment
Environmental Chemistry
Environmental Health
Environmental Monitoring
Human Activities - statistics & numerical data
Human influences
Humans
India
Nitrogen dioxide
Outbreaks
Outdoor air quality
Pandemics
Pandemics - prevention & control
Particulate matter
Particulate Matter - analysis
Pneumonia, Viral - prevention & control
Pollutants
Pollution
Pollution control
Pollution index
Pollution levels
Soil Science & Conservation
Sulfur dioxide
Viral diseases
Viruses
Waste Water Technology
Water Management
Water pollution
Water Pollution Control
Water quality
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Summary:In December 2019, the outbreak of viral disease labeled as Novel Coronavirus started in Wuhan, China, which later came to be known as Covid-19. The disease has spread in almost every part of the world and has been declared a global pandemic in March 2020 by World Health Organization (WHO). The corona virus outbreak has emerged as one of the deadliest pandemics of all time in human history. The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has forced several countries of the world to observe complete lockdown forcing people to live in their homes. India also faced the phase of total lockdown for 21 days (in first phase) to avoid the spread of coronavirus to the maximum possible extent. This lockdown impacted the pollution levels of environment and improved air and water quality in the short span owing to very less human activities. The present work scientifically analyzed the available data for primary air pollutants (PM 2.5 , NO 2 , SO 2 and CO) from two major Indian cities, Lucknow and New Delhi. The analysis was based on air quality data for before lockdown and after lockdown (first phase of 21 days) periods of 21 days each. The results showed significant decline in the studied air pollution indices and demonstrated improvement of air quality in both the cities. The major impact was seen in the levels of PM 2.5 , NO 2 and CO. The levels of SO 2 showed less significant decline during the lockdown period. The results are presented with future perspectives to mitigate air pollution in near future by adopting the short and periodical lockdown as a tool.
ISSN:0007-4861
1432-0800
DOI:10.1007/s00128-020-02895-w