IMPACT OF LOCKDOWN DUE TO COVID-19 ON AQI IN 3 MAJOR HOTSPOTS OF DELHI : A BEFORE AND AFTER STUDYPRATEEK MALHOTRA, RUBY CHAUHAN, PARIDHI GUPTA AND PRAKAMYA ARORATAbstract Gradual lockdown as a measure was forced into action in India for more than 4 weeks after the beginning of Covid -19 pandemic, as a measure to flatten the epidemic curve. Through our study we are trying to interpret the changes in air quality level during the period of lockdown in Delhi by collecting and evaluating the data of pollutants from 3 major hotspots through updated data of DPCB (Delhi Pollution Control Board). It has noted that after a week and more there was a significant decline in air pollutant level in these areas which lead to improvement in air quality, major decline was noted in PM2.5 (-28.37%, -25.37% and -25.43%), and NO2 a traffic emission related pollutant (-91.29%, -13.29% and -55.26%) respectively whereas slight improvement in ozonehas been recorded an association of major pollutant (PM2.5,10, NO2) has shown significant association with impact of lockdown during covid-19 in their decline, whereas further improvement might come in forthcoming days as GOI is going to put more measures to combat the virus spread which came into force from 23rd March 2020. Still there are lots of efforts need to be done to understand impact of lockdown on major polluted level and how a single lockdown could give great result after spending crores of money on project related to same, so itâs our recommendation to GOI to look into this impact and plan measure accordingly in future so that Delhites can breathe a easy air than they used to breathe earlier. |