Due to industrial revolution and population explosion, environmental degradation has posed a great problem worldwide. Effluents of various industries are loaded with ions of Pb, Hg, As, Cd and many other toxic heavy metals. Unlike most of the organic pollutants, heavy metal ions are non-biodegradable and do not degrade into harmless end products. Due to their toxicity, heavy metal ions are a great threat to animals, plants and human beings. A large number of research groups have reported a variety of treatment processes for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater and industrial effluents. The most important of these include precipitation, membrane filtration, ion exchange, co-precipitation and adsorption. Most of these methods have one or the other limitations such as high cost, less efficiency, less selectivity and specificity, sensitive operating conditions and production of secondary pollutants. Out of these methods, adsorption is most widely used for removal of heavy and toxic metal ions as it is free from most of the limitations associated with conventional methods cited above. In recent years, the use of inexpensive, abundantly available and biodegradable cellulosics derived from forest and agro industry wastes as low cost, highly efficient and selective adsorbent has increased. In the present review, an attempt has been made to summarize some recent advances using cellulose and its derivatives for removal of heavy metal ions.