CARBON EMISSIONS AND AIR QUALITY INDEX DUE TO

AMID COVID 19 LOCKDOWN IN INDIA

The nationwide 'Janta Curfew' followed by the 21-day lockdown to combat the coronavirus
outbreak have led to a significant reduction in pollution in the country with 91 cities
recording air quality in the 'good' and 'satisfactory' category on March 29, a Central Pollution
Control Board report has stated.Travel restrictions and closure of industries have helped
reduce the pollution level.
According to the report, on March 21 (a day before the Janta Curfew) a total of 54 cities
recorded 'good' and 'satisfactory' air quality while on March 29 as many as 91 cities recorded
minimal pollution.
Since the lockdown was imposed, the air quality all around the country has shown drastic
improvement due to eradication of local pollutants generated due to construction activities
and vehicular traffic�among others.
Out of the 91 cities that showed minimal pollution, as many as 30 cities recorded 'good' air
quality while 61 cities recorded 'satisfactory' air quality, the report showed.
Moreover, the number of cities recording poor to severe air pollution also came down from
nine (March 21) to 0 (March 29), the report said.
An AQI between 0-50 is considered good, 51-100 satisfactory, 101-200 moderate, 201-300
poor, 301-400 very poor and 401-500 severe. Air Quality Index is assessment of the air
quality by taking into account different factors. The lower the AQI the better the air is
considered to be.
Higher AQI value was seen in Kanpur with PM2.5 as prominent pollutant, likely emanating
from local combustion sources, the report said.
High AQI value was noted in Vapi, Ratlam (Sulphur di-oxide as prominent pollutant), Satna,
Singrauli and Chandrapur seemingly due emissions from industrial areas.

 AQI- Air Quality Index

 Source- ndtv.com
 Date- 8/4/20
AIR QUALITY FORECAST IN MAJOR HOTSPOTS OF INDIA

In Pune
Pollutants Today Advisory Tomorrow' Advisory After 3 Advisory
s Forecast days
PM10 64 Satisfactor 60 Satisfactor 60 Satisfactory
(µgm-3) y y
PM2.5 40 Satisfactor 38 Satisfactor 38 Satisfactory
(µgm-3) y y

In Delhi
Pollutants Today Advisory Tomorrow' Advisory After 3 Advisory
s Forecast days
PM10 79 Satisfactor 99 Satisfactor 71 Satisfactory
(µgm-3) y y
PM2.5 36 Satisfactor 43 Satisfactor 32 Satisfactory
(µgm-3) y y

In Mumbai
Pollutants Today Advisory Tomorrow’s Advisory After 3 Advisory
Forecast days
PM10 94 Satisfactor 89 Satisfactor 106 Moderate
(µgm-3) y y
PM2.5 66 Moderate 60 Satisfactor 61 Moderate
(µgm-3) y

In Ahmedabad
Pollutants Today Advisory Tomorrow’s Advisory After 3 Advisory
Forecast days
PM10 107 Moderate 114 Moderate 106 Moderate
(µgm-3)
PM2.5 53 Satisfactor 60 Satisfactor 67 Moderate
(µgm-3) y y

SOURCE- Report taken from SAFAR India

DATE- 9/4/2020
COVID-19 EFFECTS ON HUMAN LIFE, MARINE LIFE AND PLANT
LIFE
Effects on Human experience or human life
The cost of confidence
An explicit message of COVID-19 is that other people/places can carry an invisible threat.
Deciding on what to do—especially in relation to large decisions, such as holidays and where
to live or work—is becoming a more anxious process. Many purchases are being postponed.
All of this will make risk less tolerable and the familiar more valuable.
The erosion of confidence will make trust way more important than ever before. This will
necessitate a “trust multiplier”—action that, to be effective, rebuilds trust quickly and
credibly. Focus will be on confidence-building through every channel. Justifiable optimism
will sell well. All of this may change the nature of what we regard as premium products and
services.
The virtual century
The enforced shift during the worst of the pandemic to virtual working, consuming and
socializing will fuel a massive and further shift to virtual activity for anything. It will affect
ways of communicating across learning, working, transacting and consuming. This will
impact on everyone.
Adoption of digital by those yet to do so will be accelerated and a reduction of the obstacles
to going virtual for any sort of experience will be required. Winners will be those who test
and explore all of the associated creative possibilities. Anything that can be done virtually
will be.
Every business is a health business
People are concluding that they cannot rely on existing health structures but, nonetheless,
want all the help they can get, in every aspect of their lives. Health experiences will be in
demand and, vice versa, health should be considered in every experience.
The concerns about health amplified during the crisis will not ebb after it is over. Rather,
health will dominate. A health economy will emerge with opportunities for all to plug into.
Every business will need to understand how it can be part of a new health ecosystem that will
dominate citizen thinking.
Cocooning
Everyone being told to self-isolate means a return en masse to home as the epicenter of life
and experience. At the height of the crisis, many—workers, especially—are spending more
time at home. After, this pattern will endure with meaningfulness and comfort carrying a
price premium.
There will be a rise in home spending—on the home and made at home as people will stay
more local. Desire for cocooning, along with opportunities for those with creative strategies
to enable it, will move center-stage. Winners will be those who zero their sights on the home.
The reinvention of authority
Dependence on experts and strong government recommendation—plus executive powers to
start resolving the pandemic backed by citizen compliance—lends real weight to central
authority, which in many markets has been eroded recently in popular culture. If governments
get their handling of the crisis broadly right, expect top-down control to be back in fashion; if
not, the reverse.
A reinvention of authority is likely after the effect of travel limitations, self-isolation and
lockdown officially mandated by many governments. Greater acceptance for the role of
government and companies in society, and the importance of collective behavior, may occur.

Effects on marine life

In hydrothermal vents off the coast of Italy, scientists discovered microbes containing
enzymes that remained stable at extreme temperatures. This discovery allowed scientists to
develop the techniques and technology we are using today to quickly diagnose the Covid-19
virus.
But Covid-19 isn’t the first time the deep sea has helped humanity. Compounds found here
have given us new treatments for cancer. Scientists believe there could be new antibiotics
developed from what we find in the deep sea, which will be crucial in our fight against
superbugs. These unstudied depths could also hold the key to understanding the beginnings of
life on earth.
Covid-19 has thrown millions of lives into chaos. But we know from experience that even
through these times some companies will continue their march towards destroying our Earth
and our oceans. For all our sakes, I truly hope that in these trying times, we do not lose sight
of the fact that protecting these vital ecosystems is inextricable from protecting the health of
humans and all life on Earth.
Seafood Safety
We are fully committed to providing quality seafood inspection services to the seafood
industry in the safest and most efficient way possible during COVID-19.
For updated information related to COVID-19 and seafood safety, please visit the following
organizations:
• Food & Drug Administration
• National Fisheries Institute
Closures, Cancellations, Changes
Out of an abundance of caution, our facilities are closed to the public. This includes the
following:
• Woods Hole Aquarium
• Alaska Fishing Permits
• Southeast Fisheries Permit Walkup Window
All public in-person events are canceled or rescheduled. Meetings and workshops essential to
our agency’s mission will be virtual when feasible.

Effects on Plant’s Life

In China, emissions fell 25% at the start of the year as people were instructed to stay at home,
factories shuttered and coal use fell by 40% at China’s six largest power plants since the last
quarter of 2019. The proportion of days with “good quality air” was up 11.4% compared with
the same time last year in 337 cities across China, according to its Ministry of Ecology and
Environment. In Europe, satellite images show nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions fading
away over northern Italy. A similar story is playing out in Spain and the UK.
Only an immediate and existential threat like Covid-19 could have led to such a profound
change so fast; at the time of writing, global deaths from the virus had passed 20,000, with
more than 400,000 cases confirmed worldwide. As well as the toll of early deaths, the
pandemic has brought widespread job losses and threatened the livelihoods of millions as
businesses struggle to cope with the restrictions being put in place to control the virus.
Economic activity has stalled and stock markets have tumbled alongside the falling carbon
emissions. It’s the precisely opposite of the drive towards a decarbonised, sustainable
economy that many have been advocating for decades.
A global pandemic that is claiming people’s lives certainly shouldn’t be seen as a way of
bringing about environmental change either. For one thing, it’s far from certain how lasting
this dip in emissions will be. When the pandemic eventually subsides, will carbon and
pollutant emissions “bounce back” so much that it will be as if this clear-skied interlude
never happened? Or could the changes we see today have a more persistent effect?
The first thing to consider, says Kimberly Nicholas, a sustainability science researcher at
Lund University in Sweden, is the different reasons that emissions have dropped. Take
transport, for example, which makes up 23% of global carbon emissions. These emissions
have fallen in the short term in countries where public health measures, such as keeping
people in their homes, have cut unnecessary travel. Driving and aviation are key contributors
to emissions from transport, contributing 72% and 11% of the transport sector’s greenhouse
gas emissions respectively.

SOURCE- Effects on marine life- https://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/story/how-the-

deep-ocean-is-helping-in-the-fight-against-covid-19/
Effects on plant’s life- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200326-covid-19-the-impact-of-
coronavirus-on-the-environment

DATE- 9/4/2020