The Government of Assam on April 30, 2026, issued corrigendum in the Operational Guidelines for the Assam Agarwood Promotion Policy.
The following has been stated:
(1) Exemption from Felling Permission: The provision under Para 5.2 of the Operational Guidelines for the Assam Agarwood Promotion Policy mandating the requirement of felling permission from the Environment and Forest Department, Covernment of Assam, during harvesting of agarwood, shall not apply to the Agarwood trees cultivated un private land, provided the harvested agarwood is utilized or processed within the State of Assam. This is in accordance with Rule 5 Sub-Rule (2) of the Assam Trees Outside Forest (Sustainable Management) Rules, 2022-dealing with the harvesting of Schedule III trees (which includes agar tree (Aquilaria malaccensis)] from domestic farmland for consumption within the Sute.
(2) Auto-Generation of Certificate of Origin for Agarwood Items: In lieu of what is mandated under Para 5.2 and other Paras (if any) of the Operational Guidelines for the Assam Agarwood Promotion Policy, in case of harvest/ extract of agarwood from an area situated more than 5 (live) Km from the nearest forest area/s, the "Certificate of Origin' shall be issued online [Le. in the website/portal concerned of the Environment and Forest Department of the State Government) within 48 hours of uploading of application with information, details, data, documents, etc. by the owner of the plantation from which the agarwood is extracted/ harvested. This shall be in accordance with Sub-Rule (2) of Rule (4) of the Assam Trees Outside Forest (Sustainable Management) Rules, 2022.
(3) Registration of Agarwood Plantation outside Forest Area: Registration of Agarwood plantation as per provisions of Sub-Rule (1) of Rule 3 of the Assam Trees Outside Forest (Sustainable Management) Rules, 2022 of the Environment & Forest Department, Government of Assam as mandated under Para 3.2 of the Operational Guidelines for the Assam Agarwood Promotion Policy, shall be in online mode; and shall not require physical verification by forest authorities if the distance of the plantation is more than 5 (five) Km from the nearest forest.
The planter/owner of such plantation shall be able to obtain an Auto- Generated 'Plantation Registration Certificate by: (i) self- certification by the owner of the plantation along with (ii) uploading of land ownership documents etc. and geo-tagged photographs of the trees of that plantation on the relevant website/ portal for plantation registration under the Environment & Forest Department of the State Government in accordance with Sub-Sub-Rule (vi) of Sub-Rule (1) of Rule 3, and Sub-Sub-Rule (i) of Sub-Rule (2) of Rule 3, of the aforementioned Assam Trees Outside Forest (Sustainable Management) Rules, 2022
The automatic generation of the Plantation Registration Certificate under this Para shall be accomplished within 48 hours of the generation of the acknowledgment of receipt-of the online application as per Sub-Sub-Rule (ii) of Sub-Rule (2) of Rule 3, of the aforementioned Assam Trees Outside Forest (Sustainable Management) Rules, 2022.
(4) Registration of Agarwood Industries: Regarding registration of the agarwood processing units, it shall be strictly in accordance with Rule 8B of the Assam Wood Based Industries (Promotion and Development) Rules 2022. However, the Assam Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (Facilitation of Establishment and Operation) Act 2020 shall be simultaneously applicable thereby allowing the requisite Registration to be obtained within 3 years of getting the acknowledgement certificate of applying under the Act to set up the plant.
Besides, as per Sub-Rule (iv) of Rule 8 (B) of the aforementioned Rules, the agarwood-based industries can obtain registration through a completely online process with a definite time-frame of 30 days from the date of application in prescribed format in the web-portal concerned.
The Notification shall come into immediate retrospective effect as mentioned above.
[Notification No. 272197/452]
