Water resource shortage and pollution has seriously threatened the survival and development of developing countries. Because of India's specific economical and social circumstances, complete adoption of developed countries experience is unrealistic. At present, India needs to develop strategies and technologies in source water pollution control and industrial and municipal environmental remediation that embrace the country's specific need to battle the water resource problem. This study was aimed to comparative variation in physico-chemical properties and heavy metals estimation of drinking water samples collected from different districts of Jharkhand, India and their water quality index. A total number of 28 water samples were collected from different sources like hand pumps, wells and taps. The gross appearance, pH, total hardness, Ca, Mg, total alkalinity, Na, K, Cl-, SO4-, NO3-, F-, TDS and heavy metals like Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Cd, Cr, Mn and Fe were analyzed. The results of physico-chemical parameters and heavy metals estimation of most of the water samples were found to be within acceptable limit as per IS-10500 and some of the samples from district Dhanbad, Bokaro, Ramgarh, Hazaribag area and Giridih showed slight variation from IS -10500. WQI value indicates that quality of water from all five districts is poor. The ground water for use of drinking purpose requires some treatment including removal of iron and softening.