The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year has since become the COVID-19 pandemic across all continents. To restrict the spread of the virus pandemic, the Government of India imposed a lockdown from 25 March 2020. In India, Kannur district was identified as the first “hotspot” of virus transmission and a “triple-lockdown” was implemented for a span of twenty days from 20 April 2020. This article highlights the variations of surface O₃, NO, NO₂, CO, SO_2, NH₃, VOC’s, PM₁₀, PM_2.5 and meteorological parameters at the time of pre-lockdown, lockdown and triple-lockdown days at Kannur town in south India using ground-based analyzers. From pre-lockdown days to triple-lockdown days, surface O₃ concentration was found to increase by 22% in this VOC limited environment. NO and NO₂ concentrations were decreased by 61% and 71% respectively. The concentration of PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were observed to decline significantly by 61% and 53% respectively. Reduction in PM₁₀ during lockdown and triple-lockdown days enhanced the intensity of solar radiation reaching the lower troposphere, and increased air temperature and reduced the relative humidity. Owing to this, surface O₃ production over Kannur was found to have increased during triple-lockdown days. The concentration of CO (67%), VOCs (61%), SO₂ (62%) and NH₃ (16%) were found to decrease significantly from pre-lockdown days to triple-lockdown days. The air quality index revealed that the air quality at the observational site was clean during the lockdown.