Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the air quality in Delhi, India

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the biggest health calamities that the world has faced, which has infected millions of people and lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths all over the world. It has impacted the economic, social and health aspects of the countries to quite an extreme level. But an indirect positive impact can also be seen on the environment. In this paper, taking the example of Delhi, one of the most polluted cities of India, an analysis has been done to compare the levels of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NOx and ozone) during the lockdown and the same period in the previous years. The study shows that the extent to which the industries, vehicles, power plants etc. release the air pollutants and severely impact the environment and human health. As during the lockdown when all such activities were either stopped or very much restricted, a reduction of almost 60% in the particulate matter pollution and up to 40% in the NOx pollution was observed while the ozone levels were reduced by 30-40% as compared to the same period during the previous two years. In the end, some suggestions have been made which can play some part to control air pollution once the lockdown is over. © 2020 Technoscience Publications. All rights reserved.