The Jammu and Kashmir government, citing official data, has said that around 75,000 kanals of land have been handed over to different agencies since 2019, while more than 17 lakh kanals of state land with corresponding entries were being expunged from various records.
“Jammu and Kashmir has a total of 1,00,61,63.9 kanals of state land, of which 17,27,246.5 kanals are under illegal occupation or encroachment,” the data revealed. While sharing division-wise land record details, the government said that the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) is working to regulate land allotted to various institutions, and the retrieval process is also being carried out jointly.
In the Kashmir division, a total of 16,54,709.9 kanals is designated as state land, of which 3,27,198 kanals are under encroachment, the data revealed. It also said that entries pertaining to more than 13,862 kanals have been expunged from official records.
According to the data, Baramulla district has the highest percentage of encroached land, followed by Kupwara, Pulwama, and Anantnag, while Srinagar district reported the least encroached land among these districts.
In the Jammu division, Rajouri recorded the highest percentage of encroached land, followed by Reasi, Ramban, Jammu, and Kathua districts. The encroached land stands at around 14 lakh kanals in Jammu division and 3.27 lakh kanals in Kashmir.
Government officials said that so far, they have transferred around nearly 70,000 kanals of land to different departments since 2019. Besides, 7,495 kanals have been transferred to Central government departments and agencies, with the cost of the land running into billions of rupees.
The revenue department has also transferred around 8,103 kanals, while divisional commissioners transferred 9,086 kanals and deputy commissioners transferred over 6,870 kanals between 2019 and 2024.
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