Covid-19 Lockdown - Showing Possibilities Of Change

To stop the imminent spread of the novel coronavirus, the Government of India imposed a nationwide lockdown between March 25 and April 14, 2020. But, do you know that even during these testing times there is something to feel really cheerful about? Shivang Agarwal and Dr Sumit Sharma say that this complete lockdown has resulted in improvement of air quality in Indian cities, particularly Delhi and Mumbai. The 21-day lockdown in the country has provided us a blessing in disguise to reassess our activity patterns and also shown us the possible impacts of these strategies on air quality.

- Shivang Agarwal and Dr Sumit Sharma

All of us have myriad reasons to loathe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and rightly so, but even in these testing times there is something to feel exuberant about. Looking in terms of air pollution levels in the urban centres in India, the lockdowns associated with COVID-19 have resulted in improvement of air quality in Indian cities. Delhi and Mumbai, two of the many non-attainment cities recognized by the Government of India, show poor air quality more or less throughout the year. Despite the efforts by central and state governments to reduce air pollution in these cities, the results were not very dramatic. Pollution levels in these cities are so high that they routinely feature in the top polluted cities in the country. But the ‘Janata Curfew’ that was observed on March 22, 2020 and the subsequent lockdown for 21 days all over India have proved to be a breather for the cities. A hopeless fantasy was fulfilled and the claim of COVID-19 lockdown actually reducing the air pollution levels in these cities was substantiated when one looked at the bright stars in the night sky and clear sky during the day.