Improvement in ambient-air-quality reduced temperature during the COVID-19 lockdown period in India

Subodh Chandra Pal; Indrajit Chowdhuri; Asish Saha; Rabin Chakrabortty; Paramita Roy; Manoranjan Ghosh; Manisa Shit

doi:10.1007/s10668-020-01034-z

Improvement in ambient-air-quality reduced temperature during the COVID-19 lockdown period in India

Environ Dev Sustain. 2021;23(6):9581-9608. doi: 10.1007/s10668-020-01034-z. Epub 2020 Oct 22.

Authors

Subodh Chandra Pal¹, Indrajit Chowdhuri¹, Asish Saha¹, Rabin Chakrabortty¹, Paramita Roy¹, Manoranjan Ghosh², Manisa Shit³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Barddhaman, West Bengal 713104 India.
² Rural Development Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal India.
³ Department of Geography, Raiganj University, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, Raiganj, 733134 India.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced India as a whole to lockdown from 24 March 2020 to 14 April 2020 (first phase), extended to 3 May 2020 (second phase) and further extended to 17 May 2020 (third phase) and 31 May 2020 (fourth phase) with only some limited relaxation in non-hot spot areas. This lockdown has strictly controlled human activities in the entire India. Although this long lockdown has had a serious impact on the social and economic fronts, it has many positive impacts on environment. During this lockdown phase, a drastic fall in emissions of major pollutants has been observed throughout all the parts of India. Therefore, in this research study we have tried to establish a relationship among the fall in emission of pollutants and their impact on reducing regional temperature. This analysis was tested through the application of Mann-Kendall and Sen's slope statistical index with air quality index and temperature data for several stations across the country, during the lockdown period. After the analysis, it has been observed that daily emissions of pollutants (PM₁₀, PM_2.5, CO, NO₂, SO₂ and NH₃) decreased by - 1- - 2%, allowing to reduce the average daily temperature by 0.3 °C compared with the year of 2019. Moreover, this lockdown period reduces overall emissions of pollutants by - 51- - 72% on an average and hence decreases the average monthly temperature by 2 °C. The same findings have been found in the four megacities in India, i.e., Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai; the rate of temperature fall in the aforementioned megacities is close to 3 °C, 2.5 °C, 2 °C and 2 °C, respectively. It is a clear indicator that a major change occurs in air quality, and as a result it reduced lower atmospheric temperature due to the effect of lockdown. It is also a clear indicator that a major change in air quality and favorable temperature can be expected if the strict implementations of several pollution management measures have been implemented by the concern authority in the coming years.

Keywords: Air pollutant; Air quality index; COVID-19; Climate.