The presence of anions such as chromate, arsenate and arsenite in drinking water is a major health concern in many parts of the world due to their high toxicity. Removal of such anions from water using low cost biomass is an efficient and affordable treatment process. Owing to the easy availability and biodegradability, we chose to use apple peel as a substrate for our investigations. Zirconium cations were immobilized onto the apple peel surface and used for the extraction of anions. Zirconium loaded apple peels were used to extract anions such as phosphate, arsenate, arsenite and chromate ions from aqueous solutions. The presence of Zr cations on apple peel surface was characterized using XPS. The modified adsorbent was characterized using SEM, EDS, and FT-IR. Zr treated apple peels showed efficient adsorption towards AsO2- (15.64 mg/g), AsO43- (15.68 mg/g), Cr2O72- (25.28 mg/g) and PO43- (20.35 mg/g) anions. The adsorption and desorption studies revealed the adsorption mechanism involves electrostatic interactions. Anion removal efficiency was estimated by batch adsorption studies. Adsorption kinetic parameters for all anions at different concentrations were described using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order rate equation. Langumir and Freundlich isotherms were used to validate our adsorption data. Arsenate and chromate anions were strongly adsorbed at the pH range from 2 to 6, while arsenite was extracted efficiently between pH 9 and 10. Overall, the Zr immobilized apple peel is an efficient adsorbent for common anionic pollutants.