During the past few decades, pharmaceutical industries have registered a quantum jump contributing to high economic growth, but simultaneously it has also given rise to severe environmental pollution. Untreated or allegedly treated pharmaceutical industrial wastewater (PIWW) creates a need for time to time assessment and characterization of discharged wastewater as per the standards provided by the regulatory authorities. To control environmental pollution, pharmaceutical industries use different treatment plans to treat and reuse wastewater. The characterization of PIWW using advanced and coupled techniques has progressed to a much advanced level, but in view of new developments in drug manufacture for emerging diseases and the complexities associated with them, better sophisticated instrumentation and methods of treatment are warranted. The bioremediation process to treat PIWW has undergone more intense investigation in recent decade. This results in the complete mineralization of pharmaceutical industries' wastewater and no waste product is obtained. Moreover, high efficiency and low operation cost prove it to be an effective tool for the treatment of PIWW. The present review focuses on the characterization as well as bioremediation aspects of PIWW.

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In Uttarakhand during past 10 years, there is an extreme growth in pharmaceutical industry.This rapid industrialization contributes to water pollution also. Although all pharmaceutical industries works under the strict guideline of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Govt. of India, but the situation is far from satisfaction. Time to time monitoring of pharmaceutical wastewater is necessary to check the level of pollutants, which helps in upgradation and designing of proper treatment strategy. In this study, we selected five different sites, located in Pharma City, Selaqui, Dehradun, Uttrakhand, India, for heavy metal analysis. Heavy metals such as: aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, copper, iron, lead, mercury and zinc were selected for wastewater assessment. Twelve months sampling (January 2012 to December 2012) were done every month for heavy metals study. Heavy metals analysis was done by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). All parameters were compared with the general standards for discharge of industrial effluents into inland surface water, provided by CPCB and Bureau of Indian standards (BIS). The range of concentrations of all mentioned heavy metals for five different sampling sites were found in the following range 0.001-4.525 mg/l for aluminium, 0-0.056 mg/l for arsenic, 0.0004-0.0096 mg/l for cadmium, 0-0.125 mg/l for hexavalent chromium, 0.002-0.1112 mg/l for copper, 0.0012-8.62 mg/l for iron, 0-0.027 mg/l for lead, 0.001-1.24 mg/l for manganese and 0.007-2.01 mg/l for zinc. Further, this study was subjected to statistical analysis using Box and Whisker Vertical Plots, Pearson's Correlation and Annova. It was concluded that average value for all selected parameter were found within the standards limits provided by CPCB and BIS. This study further helps us to design an appropriate treatment plan for pharmaceutical industries wastewater containing other pollutants.