Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Not only forest land but even large tracts of agricultural land in Assam have been diverted for other purposes. The highest such re-classification of agricultural land in the Brahmaputra Valley has been done in the Kamrup district over the past four years.
As per records, in the period between 2021 and 2025, a total of 28,521 bighas of agricultural land in 26 districts in Assam has been re-classified for other than agriculture use. According to Land Utilisation Statistics (Provisional) 2024-25, published by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Assam, the net cropped area of land in the state is 27,58,757 hectares.
In the past decade, a phenomenon has been witnessed of agricultural land being acquired by some businessmen, including those originally hailing from outside the state, wherever large infrastructure projects, such as national highways, are built. Most of the land is purchased from the state's farmers. Later, the agricultural land is reclassified and used for other purposes.
In the period from 2021 to 2025, the re-classification of agricultural land in different districts in the state is as follows: Kamrup 3,509 bighas, Jorhat 2,281 bighas, Golaghat 1,808 bighas, Bajali 428 bighas, Barpeta 1,064 bighas, Biswanath 669 bighas, Bongiagaon 496 bighas, Cachar 318 bighas, Charaideo 408 bighas, South Salmara-Mankachar 6 bighas, Darrang 1,712 bighas, Dhemaji 701 bighas, Dhubri 703 bighas, Dibrugarh 1,681 bighas, Goalpara 682 bighas, Hojai 593 bighas, Kamrup Metro 1,248 bighas, Sribhumi 130 bighas, Lakhimpur 1,190 bighas, Majuli 204 bighas, Morigaon 1,540 bighas, Nagaon 1,517 bighas, Nalbari 1,630 bighas, Sivasagar 1,285 bighas, Sonitpur 1,568 bighas and Tinsukia 1,135 bighas.
A rule exists for re-classification of agricultural land, but such diversion of land for other than agricultural or horticultural use should be strictly monitored so that unwarranted re-classification is not done, reducing the land meant for agricultural production. Of late, such diversion of land near urban areas is leading to the menace of urban floods, as excess rainwater does not have any place to go, with deep agricultural fields filled up and built over.
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