Microorganisms have been the source of many different enzymes and alpha amylase is the important one. Bacillus strains are widely used for the commercial production of α-amylases as the strains are amenable to mass production. The present study aims to find out an effective producer of α amylase from 61 Bacillus sp. isolated from neem leaves and standardise the production conditions. Of the 61 isolates 49 (80.3%) isolates were found to produce amylase on starch agar plates. Seven isolates were selected for enzyme production by broth culture and the isolate SJC B03 was found to be the best. This isolate was used for optimizing the culture conditions for alpha amylase production. The optimum pH of the production medium for alpha amylase was found to be 5 and the isolate showed almost equal enzyme activity, when powdered tapioca and smashed potato were used as carbon source. Maximum enzyme activity was shown by the isolate when ammonium chloride was used as nitrogen source in the medium.