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Abstract

A novel infectious corona virus disease (COVID-19) was identified in month of December 2019.It has now been announced as a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization [1]. The COVID-19 pandemic has positive impacts on the environmental pollutants. In present work, Coalfield areas of Jharia Coalfields (JCF), India have been taken as a case study to evaluate the effect of lockdown on air quality at 10 locations. This study had been selected to estimate the reduction in concentration of pollutants like PM10, PM2.5, SO2, and NOx during 3 Seasons (summer, Post-Monsoon and winter season) in the year 2019 in comparison to the concentration during lockdown period i.e. from April 2020 to June 2020. The study areas selected was as fire affected and non-fire affected areas of Jharia Coalfield to identify the contribution of pollutants in the mining area to establish the baseline concentration of Business as usual (BAU) vs. lockdown condition.

The average reduction in concentration of PM10, PM2.5, SO2 and NOX was observed as 18%, 14%, 22% and 26% respectively during lockdown period in comparison with the annual average concentration.

As observed, the AQI value at the selected monitoring sites in JCF was 1.5 times higher in comparison to the lockdown period.

This study will provide the confidence to the regulatory body for strict implementation of the applicable air quality standard/policies in the mining areas. The study will also provide confidence to the regulatory body in making emission control strategies for improvement of environmental condition and human health.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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