India enforced stringent lockdown measures on March 24, 2020 to mitigate the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronovirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, we examined the impact of lockdown on the air quality index (AQI) [including ambient particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O 3 ), and ammonia (NH 3 )] and tropospheric NO 2 and O 3 densities through Sentinel-5 satellite data approximately 1 d post-lockdown and one month pre-lockdown and post-lockdown. Our findings revealed a marked reduction in the ambient AQI (estimated mean reduction of 17.75% and 20.70%, respectively), tropospheric NO 2 density, and land surface temperature (LST) during post-lockdown compared with the pre-lockdown period or corresponding months in 2019, except for a few sites with substantial coal mining and active power plants. We observed a modest increase in the O 3 density post-lockdown, thereby indicating improved tropospheric air quality. As a favorable outcome of the COVID-19 lockdown, road accident-related mortalities declined by 72-folds. Cities with poor air quality correlate with higher COVID-19 cases and deaths ( r =0.504 and r =0.590 for NO 2 ; r =0.744 and r =0.435 for AQI). Conversely, low mortality was reported in cities with better air quality. These results show a correlation between the COVID-19 vulnerable regions and AQI hotspots, thereby suggesting that air pollution may exacerbate clinical manifestations of the disease. However, a prolonged lockdown may nullify the beneficial environmental outcomes by adversely affecting socioeconomic and health aspects.

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There is an urgent need for a biodegradable, hydrophobic material that can be used in developing packaging materials. In this preliminary study, epicuticular wax has been extracted from the leaves of Calotropis procera and Alstonia scholaris using various solvents (i.e., ethanol, methanol, benzene, and acetone). The highest wax amounts were found to be 0.54 µg/cm 2 and 0.13 µg/cm 2 from Alstonia scholaris and Calotropis procera, respectively. The highest hydrophobicity (29.57%) was found to be in paper discs coated with epicuticular wax extracted with benzene from the adaxial surface of Calotropis procera.