Efficacious transmittal of COVID-19 has compelled numerous countries worldwide to embrace temporary yet dramatic measures such as locking down entire cities, restricting all forms of transportation, imposing lockdowns, maintaining social distancing etc. These actions have considerably enhanced the quality of ambient air and water. India, being a densely populated country, imposed a strict nationwide lockdown mandate since the last week of March 2020. This paper discusses the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on several aspects of environment broadly in Indian scenario. The forward course of action in the present and probable scenarios has also been addressed. As the disease spread is still underway, lockdown restrictions yet to be lifted and the availability of metadata hitherto being restrictive, firm deductions and explications could not be made. This case study i.e. observing the effects of lockdown, is a unique opportunity to understand how the environment reacts to sharp reductions in anthropogenic activity.

Reclamation of the dumps/landfills having huge quantities of decades-old garbage (aged waste or legacy waste) in an environmentally sound manner is one of the major challenges faced by the developing nations in general and in particular by urban local bodies in India. The article presents the feasibility of landfill mining operation specifically to recover soil-like material at old dumpsites of India for re-use in geotechnical applications. Aged municipal solid waste was collected from three dumpsites of India and initial tests were conducted on the soil-like material of the municipal solid waste. Initial tests results of grain size distribution, compositional analysis, organic content, total dissolved solids, elemental analysis, heavy metal analysis and colour of the leached water from finer fraction of aged municipal solid waste are presented. From the preliminary investigation, it was found that organic content in 15-20-year-old dumpsites varies between 5%-12%. The total dissolved solids ranges between 1.2%-1.5%. The dark coloured water leaching out from aged waste, with reference to local soil, is one of the objectionable parameters and depends on the organic content. The concentration of heavy metals of the finer fraction were compared with the standards. It was found that copper, chromium and cadmium are present at elevated levels in all the three dumpsites. The study concluded that the bulk of the soil-like material from aged municipal solid waste landfills can be used as cover material for landfills at the same site. However, some treatment in terms of washing, thermal treatment, blending with local soil, biological treatment, etc., is required before it can be re-used in other geotechnical applications.

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