Assessment of Air Quality Before and During COVID-19-Induced Lockdown in Jaipur, India

Air pollution is increasing at a frightening pace due to emissions from industrial plants and manufacturing activities and other anthropogenic activities affecting living beings, property, and environment. This study aims to monitor the impact of COVID-19-induced lockdown and unlock down phases on the air quality of Jaipur city, Rajasthan, India by assessing the change in ambient air quality during pre-COVID-19 (January 2018-December 2019) and COVID-19 (January 2020-December 2021) phases by evaluating air quality parameters (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, O-3, Benzene and o-Xylene) using ground station data. Outcome of the study revealed that the ambient air quality improved significantly during lockdown phases (March-May 2020) as the percentage change in concentration of studied parameters declined by more than 100% at different sites. However, the concentrations tend to escalate with the introduction of unlock down phases (June-December 2020) and the onset of winter season (October-December 2020) aggravated the conditions. The AQI touched moderate and poor category many times during study period. Student's t-test was conducted on the dataset. Results revealed significant difference in the concentration of air pollutants between pre-covid and covid period.