Seventeen sampling locations were selected along the river basin spread across the three districts of Jharkhand where it flows through covering a total distance of about 300 km (Figure 1). Water samples were collected just before the onset of Monsoon in June, 2011 period. The samples were collected at 10-15 cm depth in separate pre-conditioned and acid rinsed clean polypropylene bottles and acidified with concentrated nitric acid to a pH below 2.0 to minimise precipitation and adsorption on container walls. For the determination of total heavy metals in the samples extraction procedures as described in APHA, 2005 were followed [13]. Heavy metal concentrations (Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Pb, and Cd) were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS: Varian AA50) with a specific lamp for each metal. Throughout the sampling and analysis procedures all the reagents of only analytical grade were used. Heavy metal pollution index (HPI) was determined as described below [3].