We present the optical emission characteristics of the zinc oxide (ZnO) plasma produced by the first (1,064 nm) and second (532 nm) harmonics of a Q switched Nd: YAG laser. The target material was placed in front of laser beam in air (at atmospheric pressure).The experimentally observed line profiles of neutral zinc (Zn I) have been used to extract the electron temperature using the Boltzmann plot method, whereas, the electron number density has been determined from the Stark broadening. The electron temperature is calculated by varying distance from the target surface along the line of propagation of plasma plume and also by varying the laser irradiance. Beside we have studied the variation of number density as a function of laser irradiance as well as its variation with distance from the target surface. It is observed that electron temperature and electron number density increases as laser energy is increased.