It is found strong positive correlations between turbidity with color (r = 0.756) and nitrite with chloride (r = 0.887) and TDS (r = 0.761). Nitrate and nitrite predominantly resulting due to man-made activities (Marghade et al. 2021). As nitrite is positively linked with chloride both ions have the same source, i.e. anthropogenic activities. It is revealed that fluoride has a moderate negative correlation (r = –0.729) with the pH value of the water as tabulated in Table 3. Fluoride absorption in soils reduced from humid to dry regions and from acidic to alkaline soils (Wang et al. 2002; Balasooriya et al. 2021). Furthermore, fluoride, pH, and total alkalinity occupied a separate parameter loading in PCA (Table 5). Thus, this explains the increased fluoride leaching from fluoride-bearing minerals in an acidic environment.