eng Science and Education Publishing Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences 2328-3920 2022-07-07 10 7 432 443 10.12691/aees-10-7-2 AEES20221072 article Pooja Baweja 1 Haritma Chopra principal@maitreyi.du.ac.in; vikasrena.sesjnu@gmail.com 1 Pinkey B. Gandhi 1 Sandhya Gupta 1 Nisha Poddar 1 Sakshi Suman 1 Vikas Rena principal@maitreyi.du.ac.in; vikasrena.sesjnu@gmail.com 2 Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, New Delhi 110021, India School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India The purpose of this study is to compare the Air Quality Index (AQI) in India before (1st January 2020 - 16th March 2020) and during the lockdown period (26th March 2020 - 4th June 2020). The AQI improved significantly throughout the lockdown resulted through spatio-temporal fluctuations based on Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping and multivariate statistical analysis using Correlation Matrix Analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The AQI declined by 34.51 percent in Northern India, 22.14 percent in Central India, 48.84 percent in Eastern India, 42.75 percent in Western India, 32.64 percent in Southern India, and 54.46 percent in Northeastern India during the lockdown. The findings would prompt the governments across the world to consider ways to reduce vehicle and industrial pollution to enhance air quality. http://pubs.sciepub.com/aees/10/7/2/aees-10-7-2.pdf lockdown COVID-19 spatio-temporal variation Geographic Information System (GIS) multivariate statistical analysis