Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve, Biosphere reserve in Satpura Range, Madhya Pradesh, India

Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve is a protected area in the Satpura Range of Madhya Pradesh, combining three separate zones: Bori, Pachmarhi and Satpura. The vegetation shifts from teak woodlands in the western sections to sal forests in the east, with elevations ranging from valley floors to highland ridges.

The Indian government established the protected area in 1999 to preserve the forest habitats of the central highlands. UNESCO recognized it a decade later as a biosphere reserve, confirming its value for biological diversity.

Local people in the buffer-zone villages collect plant parts from fourteen documented ethno-botanical species for their own consumption and trade. Gum is gathered from five of them: in baboolia nilotica and Terminalia tomentosa it exudes by itself from the branches without cutting, while Anogeissus latifolia, Sterculia urens and Terminalia arjuna are tapped by the traditional method of slitting the trunk.

The reserve spans 4,926.28 sq km across Narmadapuram, Betul and Chhindwara districts. Satpura National Park forms the core zone, while Bori Sanctuary (518 sq km) and Pachmarhi Sanctuary (461.37 sq km) make up the buffer. Access is through the buffer zone; the core is a non-use conservation area.

The reserve holds the westernmost groves of sal, a tree otherwise dominant in eastern India's forests. Its teak-dominated hills also shelter Cuddapah almond trees, abundant across the Pachmarhi slopes, and fourteen ethno-botanical species collected by villagers in the buffer zone.