Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has shoved most of the countries to implement restrictions for transportation and all other social activities to minimize spread of disease to the people. India is the second most populated country in the world which has implemented a historical complete lockdown throughout the country from the last week of March to April 2020 with an extension up to the first week of May 2020. This lockdown has slowed down the pollution levels in most of the cities in India within the first few weeks of the lockdown. In this view, the present study discusses the air quality scenario of Chennai, one of the megacities of India, scientifically. With the aid of air quality data of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, India, for five parameters such as PM 2.5 and P.M 10, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and air quality index, the authors correlated the pre-during-post lockdown air quality of Adyar, Chennai. The results indicated that the concentrations of particulate matter reduced to about 50 � 80 % during the lockdown compared to pre-lockdown. The concentrations of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide were decreased to 50% and 20%, respectively, within the first week of lockdown. Further the data were compared with the pollution data for the past two years (2018 and 2019). The present study gives insight on the reduction of pollution in proportion to the temporary control of pollution source at particular interval could rejuvenate the environment.
Highlights
Cities generate wealth, create jobs and accelerate human development by leveraging the process of agglomeration and urbanization
Chennai is the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu and it is the fifth-largest city in India, which is located at 13.0827°N, 80.2707°E on the southern seashore of the Bay of Bengal
According to National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) 2009 the peak concentration limit for the particulate matter PM10 is 100 g/m3 and for PM2.5 is 60 g/m3 but both the parameter's concentration levels were within the acceptable limit
Summary
Create jobs and accelerate human development by leveraging the process of agglomeration and urbanization. Cities with a population of more than 10 million are called megacities. India is the world's most populous, tropical and peninsular country. As of January 2021, India has five megacities namely, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai. Chennai is the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu and it is the fifth-largest city in India, which is located at 13.0827°N, 80.2707°E on the southern seashore of the Bay of Bengal. Chennai city has an area of about 426 square kilometers with a population of about 10.435 million in 2019 [1]. Apart from the urbanization and economic development, air pollution of the city has magnified in recent decades
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