Significant amounts of heavy metals are introduced into the environment due to human activities and industrial processes such as the combustion of fossil fuels, mining, electroplating, and waste discharge from textile, automotive, chemical, steel, iron, and petrochemical industries. Additionally, natural phenomena like volcanic eruptions, sea spray, organic matter decomposition, and wind erosion also contribute to heavy metal release. A sustainable, eco-friendly approach using biological agents like bacteria, algae, yeasts, and plants has emerged as an effective method for treating heavy metal contamination. These biological techniques are not only cost-effective and widely available but also offer high metal removal efficiency. The success of these methods depends on several factors, including the type of biomass used (living or dead), the nature of the metal being targeted, the specific binding sites involved in metal capture, and environmental conditions such as pH, temperature, contact time, metal ion concentration, the type of biological agent used, the composition of the metal solution, and the presence of other competing ions. In view of this, the present paper focuses on the sources of chromium, health effects, mechanism of microbial remediation, biosorbents, various bioreactors, and the factors affecting the process along with the future prospects in field of treatment technology.