ABSTRACT
Air pollution is increasing at a frightening pace due to emissions from industrial plants and manufacturing activities and other anthropogenic activities affecting living beings, property, and environment. This study aims to monitor the impact of COVID-19-induced lockdown and unlock down phases on the air quality of Jaipur city, Rajasthan, India by assessing the change in ambient air quality during pre-COVID-19 (January 2018–December 2019) and COVID-19 (January 2020–December 2021) phases by evaluating air quality parameters (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, O3, Benzene and o-Xylene) using ground station data. Outcome of the study revealed that the ambient air quality improved significantly during lockdown phases (March–May 2020) as the percentage change in concentration of studied parameters declined by more than 100% at different sites. However, the concentrations tend to escalate with the introduction of unlock down phases (June–December 2020) and the onset of winter season (October–December 2020) aggravated the conditions. The AQI touched moderate and poor category many times during study period. Student's t-test was conducted on the dataset. Results revealed significant difference in the concentration of air pollutants between pre-covid and covid period.