scholarly journals Impacts on Air Quality Index in the Industrial town of Asansol (West Bengal, India) due to COVID-19 lockdown

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajrupa Ghosh

Abstract The lockdown phase associated with COVID-19 pandemic initiated in full swing on and from 25th March, 2020 as preventive measures against the spreading of Corona virus. The objective of this study is to analyse the status of air quality of before and after lockdown in Asansol city which is second largest city of West Bengal, India and also known as “coal mining city”. Secondary data of five parameters like CO, SO2, NO2, PM2.5 and PM10 have been collected from Central Pollution Control Board, India. The result shows significant decrease of five parameters from 42.4 % (CO) to 63.4 % (NO2) due to close down of all industrial and transport activities during lockdown period. Based on different investigation a green belt development plan for this polluted city has been suggested for sustainable air quality management.

Author(s):  
Rajrupa Ghosh

The lockdown due to coronavirus (COVID-19) was forced in India from March, 25 to May 3 2020 as precautionary actions in contradiction of the diffusion of infectious virus. The objective of this study is to analyse the changes in air quality between pre and during the lockdown in Asansol, the “coal mining city” of Eastern India is characterized by high pollution levels due to several industries leading to human discomfort and even health problems. Secondary data of seven parameters like CO, SO2, NO2, PM2.5, PM10, NH3, and O3 have been collected from the website of the Central Pollution Control Board, India and AQI were calculated as per the calculator provided by CPCB. The result displays a significant reduction of seven parameters from 33.31 % (SO2) to 60.44 % (PM2.5) due to the shut down of all manufacturing units and transportation throughout the lockdown period. The air quality index (AQI) was also upgraded from a very poor to a satisfactory state during this period. Plants are the main carbon sink, so, a green belt project proposal for this polluted city has been recommended to improve air quality management. This lockdown (temporarily) showed some vaccine effect on the air quality, but this is totally against economic growth.


Author(s):  
Rituparna Paul ◽  
Arunasis Goswami ◽  
Biswajit Pal

Crimes against women and girls have been increasing in recent years as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau. It becomes a serious social evil worldwide. The study has been tried to find out the trend of crimes against women for the period of the last ten years (2010-2019) in the states of eastern India i.e. Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal. The study has been based on secondary data from the National Crime Records Bureau, Govt of India. The data have been extracted and analyzed to get the status of crimes in particular categories. The crime records of Bihar show an increasing rate of women assault cases. Jharkhand data shows that indecent representation of women has increased in recent years. In West Bengal Cruelty by husband is the most reported crime in West Bengal and it is also observed that rape cases were decreased in West Bengal continuously in the last ten years. It has been found that Orissa and Bihar are significantly high in crimes like women assault on the internet, an insult to the modesty of women, kidnapping and rape comparing other states of study. Cruelty by husbands and cases under the immoral traffic act had significantly higher in West Bengal compared to other states under study. The Dowry death and kidnapping and abduction are significantly high in Bihar. The different levels of crimes against women in different states not only indicates the status of women in the society and the law and order situations of that state but also it is a reflection of the socio-psychological aspects. Proper implementation of laws along with awareness of related issues, along with continuous monitoring can play a crucial role to minimize the overall crime scenario.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 574-587
Author(s):  
Subham Roy ◽  
Nimai Singha ◽  
Nishikanta Majumdar ◽  
Barsha Roy

About more than two months of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, from the end of March to the end of May in the Siliguri city of West Bengal, India, results in a momentous change in the overall air quality. The study aimed to identify the propensity of the concentration of pollutants during the period pre, during and post lockdown through trend analysis and to evaluate the alteration of air quality at different phases of lockdown (including Phase I, II, III and IV). Also, to compares the changes in the concentration of various pollutants, including Air quality index (AQI) for pre-during and pre-post lockdown periods. Data were obtained for the time-span of before, during and after lockdown and the entire lockdown period (from 25th March to 31st May) was divided into four phases to better comprehend the extent of air quality variation. Each phase of lockdown reveals different air quality scenarios, with a tendency to reduce during the first phase, increase by the third phase, and again lessens to a minimum at the fourth phase. The result shows a significant reduction in the concentration of Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) (upto -66% respectively), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (upto -46%), Sulphur dioxide (SO2) (upto -20%), Ammonia (NH3) (upto -19%) and AQI (upto -68%) during the lockdown period compared to before lockdown. On the other hand, overall Air quality was further improved after the lockdown as the concentration of the pollutants, including AQI, was further reduced to minimal. The changes for PM2.5 (upto -78%), PM10 (upto -76%), NO2 (upto -48%), SO2 (upto -40%), NH3 (upto -41%) and AQI (upto -80%) after the lockdown compared to the period of pre-lockdown. In contrast, the concentration of Ozone (O3) was increased by 21% and 25% for the same period. Similarly, the mean AQI of the city shows a poor AQI before lockdown, came to a satisfactory during the lockdown, which further changes to good air after the lockdown ended. Therefore, it is clear from the study that the lockdown has an impact on improving the overall air quality and further lockdown with appropriate planning in the future should be seen as an alternative solution to reducing excessive pollution.


Author(s):  
Rajiv Ganguly

Rapid urbanization and globalization has led to severe degradation of existing air quality in the majority of Indian cities. In this context, the general public has been aware of their exposure to ambient air quality and the effects of such air pollutants on human health. Hence, the concept of Air quality indices (AQI) is often used by regulatory authorities in conveying the status of existing ambient air quality to the general public. The chapter presents the application of air quality indices for assessing the existing air quality standards in an Indian city, Dharamshala, a tourist location in Himachal Pradesh, for the period of 2016-2017. Two different methods of determining AQI have been used wherein one method is used as the revised Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India with different sub-indices for Indian conditions based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) methodology and another alternative method utilizes contribution from all criteria pollutants.


Author(s):  
Li Tian ◽  
Wei Hou ◽  
Jiquan Chen ◽  
Chaonan Chen ◽  
Xiaojun Pan

Increases in the extent and level of air pollution in Chinese cities have become a major concern of the public and burden on the government. While ample literature has focused on the status, changes and causes of air pollution (particularly on PM2.5 and PM10), significantly less is known on their effects on people. In this study we used Hangzhou, China, as our testbed to assess the direct impact of PM2.5 on youth populations that are more vulnerable to pollution. We used the ground monitoring data of air quality and Aerosol optical thickness (AOT) product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for the spatiotemporal changes of PM2.5 by season in 2015. We further explored these distributions with land cover, population density and schools (kindergarten, primary school and middle school) to explore the potential impacts in seeking potential mitigation solutions. We found that the seasonal variation of PM2.5 concentration was winter > spring > autumn > summer. In Hangzhou, the percentage of land area exposed to PM2.5 > 50 µg m−3 accounted for 59.86% in winter, 56.62% in spring, 40.44% in autumn and 0% in summer, whereas these figures for PM2.5 of <35 µg m−3 were 70.01%, 5.28%, 5.17%, 4.16% in summer, winter, autumn and spring, respectively. As for land cover, forest experienced PM2.5 of 35–50 µg m−3 (i.e., lower than those of other cover types), likely due to the potential filtering and absorption function of the forests. More importantly, a quantitative index based on population-weighted exposure level (pwel) indicated that only 9.06% of the population lived in areas that met the national air quality standards. Only 1.66% (14,055) of infants and juveniles lived in areas with PM2.5 of <35 µg m−3. Considering the legacy effects of PM2.5 over the long-term, we highly recommend improving the monitoring systems for both air quality and people (i.e., their health conditions), with special attention paid to infants and juveniles.


2021 ◽  
Vol 889 (1) ◽  
pp. 012069
Author(s):  
Kaur Manmeet

Abstract Air quality Index (AQI) is a tool which is implemented to assess the qualitative and quantitative status of air pollutants. Four distinctive pollutants; PM10, PM2.5, SO2 and NO2 were used to compare the prevailing ambient air quality in the study region-Ludhiana, the industrial city in the north Indian state of Punjab. The AQI for Ludhiana has been compared and, the ambient air quality data for the same has been obtained for Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The data has been compared for fifteen days before and after the lockdown amid COVID-19. Air quality information uncovers that during lockdown period PM10 and PM2.5 levels were decreased by around 35 to 40%, which might be clarified as conceivable decrease from production sector, transportation, and residue. AQI of Ludhiana revealed that the primary reason for the poor air quality is P.M 10 and P.M 2.5 which significantly reduced to around 10 to 35 percent during pandemic lockdown.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1925-1935

The last day of the year 2019 (December 31st), a new infection, coronavirus, was reported from Wuhan (China) to WHO. Subsequently, it was named COVID-19 disease and being declared pandemic on the 11thof March 2020. It was one of the ever faced challenges, and 40 to 60 percent of the world population was estimated to be affected by this virus. This led to severe crises in all countries in terms of economic, social, and environment, emphasizing health. To avoid transmission of this virus worldwide, the lockdown was implemented. This lockdown started on 23rd January 2020 in some parts of the world that impacted the environment and air quality of various cities, depending on their socio-economic conditions. As per the ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Wuhan experienced a 30% reduction in air pollution. It is a known fact that air pollution has a major impact on human health; the effect of lockdown in various cities and its impact on air pollution prompt us to review some of the recent results published in a nutshell. This paper presented some of the results related to air pollution before and after the announcement of lockdown in various cities around the globe, including Visakhapatnam (India) a polluted coastal urban station with more emphasis on PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations along with air pollutants like NO2, SO2, NO, CO and Relative Humidity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2873
Author(s):  
Sayanti Kar ◽  
Indrajit Ghosh ◽  
Sebanti Show ◽  
Arunabh Sen ◽  
Tanya Gupta ◽  
...  

The outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced affected countries to implement strict lockdown to contain the spread of this disease before the advent of the vaccine. This containment resulted in social and economic crisis globally. This study evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on three “P” s of sustainability (Planet, People, and Profit) in India. A comparative analysis was conducted by evaluating the available secondary data in different sectors during the pre-lockdown and lockdown period. Seven major air quality parameters: particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ammonia (NH3), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) were studied in six states of India to review the ambient air quality status. Stratified random sampling technique was used in this study for collective portrayal of the country’s air quality. A drastic cutback of the level of PM2.5 and PM10 with significant increase of O3 was observed in the lockdown phase for most of the selected monitoring stations. A significant change in level of PM2.5 and PM10 was observed when t-test was performed in between the pre-lockdown and lockdown period. Improvement of ambient air quality was also observed considering the air quality index (AQI) during lockdown. The trend and volatility of two broad Indian stock market indices, SENSEX and NIFTY-50, were analyzed, and results showed that both the indices have recovered during the forty-day lockdown phase. The potential effects of the crisis on various sectors of Indian economy were assessed in this study, and a set of policy recommendations for these sectors were suggested.


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