129 Original scientiic paper RMZ – Materials and Geoenvironment, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 129–142, 2011 Bacterial indicators of faecal pollution and physiochemical assessment of tributaries of Ganges River in Garhwal Himalayas, India Bakterijski indikatorji fekalnega onesnaženja in iziološko-kemijska ocena pritokov reke Ganges v Garhwalski Himalaji v Indiji ArcHna Sati 1 , AncHal Sood 1 , SHiveSH SHarMa 2, * , SandeeP BiSHT 1 , V ivEk KUMar 3 1 Department of Microbiology, SBS Post Graduate Institute of Bio-Medical Sciences and Research Balawala, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India 2 Department of Applied Mechanics (Biotechnology), Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 3 Microbiology Section, Department of Soil and Water Research, Public Authority of Agricultural Affairs & Fish Resources, PO Box 21422, Safat-13075, Kuwait *Corresponding author. E-mail: dr.shiveshsharma@gmail.com Received: February 22, 2011 Accepted: March 27, 2011 Abstract: A study was undertaken to investigate the water quality of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers (tributaries of River Ganges) in Garhwal Himalayan region during the periods of monsoon, sum- mer and winter seasons. Both the rivers are sacred and are im- portant source of water for drinking and irrigation. Water samples were analyzed for various bacteriological parameters including to- tal viable count (TVC), total coliform (TC), faecal coliform (FC) and faecal streptococci (FS). Also, physicochemical attributes viz. dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) was assessed. Total viable count exceeded the maximum permissible limits in all the samples ir- respective to different seasons. The high most probable number (MPN) values and presence of faecal coliforms and streptococci in the water samples suggests the potential presence of pathogenic microorganisms which might cause water borne diseases. A direct effect of season and human activities on the pollution status was