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The present research aims to describe the measurement of the changes in air pollutants like black carbon (BC), PM2.5 and CO concentrations levels, and estimation of their source apportionment and health risk during normal period (NP) as well as lockdown period (LP) in Jamshedpur city. In India, almost all anthropogenic activities are prohibited after announcement of lockdown on 25th March 2020 due to pandemic of COVID-19. The urban atmospheric pollutants mostly BC, PM2.5 and CO concentrations were observed gradual fall during LP. The averaged mass concentration of BC, PM2.5 and CO was found about 38.46 ± 1.91 µgm− 3, 176.55 ± 21.72 µgm− 3, 840 ± 282 ppbv in NP and 9.68 ± 2.36 µgm− 3, 42.86 ± 18.97 µgm− 3, 175.88 ± 121.82 ppbv during LP respectively. It was observed that during LP, the BC, PM2.5 and CO concentrations were too much low as compared to NP. This may be because of prohibited of all human activities due to COVID-19 pandemic. The source apportionment analysis of BC indicated that the biomass burning (62.5%) contribution was high as compared to fossil fuel emission (37.5%) at LP. The air trajectory model showed that most of the air masses were coming from western part of India and also some fresh marine air masses were received at the located position. The health risk for respective health effects of CVM, LC, LBW, and PLEDSC due to exposure to BC was evaluated as 9.76, 4.8, 8.59 and 19.59 PSC in NP and 8.35, 4.1, 7.35 and 16.77 PSC in LP.

Waste management is the main concern of most cities in developing countries. The proper procedure is needed to reduce Municipal solid waste, that’s why burning is the cheaper way to decrease solid waste. The main aim of this study is to assess the concentration of Black Carbon and PM2.5 during the MSW burning sites in Jamshedpur. The continuous measurement was taken during the burning period in three phases at Industrial, Urban, and Rural waste burning sites having respective average BC concentrations observed as 145 ± 46, 101 ± 33 & 95 ± 33 μg m-3, and PM2.5 as 1391 ± 358, 998 ± 319, 957 ± 313 μg m-3. BC and PM2.5 concentrations show significant diurnal variations with maximum average concentration at the midnight phase due to large temperature fluctuation (lower mixed layer height) in the atmosphere. This evaluation during burning period exceeds regular day estimates by around 5-6 times. The rate distinction of BC by the Aethalometer model indicates that source apportionment of BC is more sensitive in assessing BCBB with an average fraction of 82 % at 880 nm because waste trash burn in the dump yard was mostly solid. Pearson correlation analysis shows strong correlations between BC and PM2.5 concentration that is primarily attributable to well-known nearby sources such as vehicular emissions.