The Assam government is moving to create a new Reserved Forest adjacent to the Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary in Sonitpur district, in a step linked to compensatory afforestation obligations arising from multiple infrastructure and industrial projects across the state.
A notification dated March 15, 2026, issued by the Environment, Forest & Climate Change Department under Section 5 of the Assam Forest Regulation, 1891, proposes bringing 224.325 hectares of land under reserved forest status — to be called Burhachapori No. 5.
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The proposed reserved forest falls within the Dhania Range under the Nagaon Wildlife Division and is ecologically well-positioned, bordered on multiple sides by protected areas:
North: Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary and Orang National Park
South and East: Burhachapori Wildlife Sanctuary
West: Kochmara Reserve Forest
The land consists of sandy loam soil and forms part of a larger 830-hectare land bank earmarked specifically for compensatory afforestation. It has already been transferred from the Revenue & Disaster Management Department to the Forest Department.
The Additional District Commissioner (Revenue), Sonitpur, has been appointed as the Forest Settlement Officer to examine and settle any existing rights over the land before the reservation is finalised.
The Divisional Forest Officer of Nagaon Wildlife Division will assist in the inquiry. The Director of Land Records, Assam, will serve as the appellate authority in the process.
The move is directly tied to a series of development projects in Assam that have required the diversion of existing forest land. These projects include:
Road infrastructure: National highway expansion by NHIDCL and NHAI
Oil and gas: Exploration projects by ONGC and Oil India Limited (OIL)
Coal mining: Operations by Coal India Limited
Power transmission: Projects by Assam Electricity Grid Corporation Limited (AEGCL)
Each of these projects has received Stage-I in-principle forest clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change. A mandatory condition of that clearance is the provision of equivalent non-forest land for compensatory afforestation before final approval is granted.
The reservation is required under the Van Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan Rules, 2023, which mandate that any forest land diverted for development must be compensated through afforestation on equivalent non-forest land.
The government notification spells out the principle clearly — compensatory afforestation must account for loss "land by land" and "trees by trees." Under Rule 13 of the 2023 Rules, the land provided for this purpose must be land that is neither notified as forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927, nor managed as forest by the Forest Department.