“More than 17 million kanals of state land were encroached by land mafia across Jammu and Kashmir, with Jammu division accounting for more than 14 million kanals, which is more than three times the number recorded in Kashmir division, while Rajouri district topped the list among all 20 districts,” the official data said.
According to official data, a total of about 17,27,247 kanals encroaching on government lands have been deleted from the revenue records in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Of the total, Jammu division accounted for 14,00,051 kanals and five marlas encroaching government lands whose entries were struck off the revenue records, while Kashmir division recorded 3,27,199 kanals,” it said.
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The data revealed marked regional differences, with seven districts of Jammu division recording more than one lakh canals encroaching on state land each, while two districts — Rajouri and Reasi — crossed the two lakh canal mark.
“In contrast, none of the 10 districts of the Kashmir division saw encroachment exceeding one lakh kanals. Only Baramulla and Kupwara crossed the 50,000 kanal mark in the valley,” it said.
The figures further showed that the districts of the two capital cities of Jammu and Srinagar saw wide variation in encroached state land.
Jammu district accounted for 1,45,487 kanals and six marls of encroaching land, while Srinagar recorded 13,862.95 kanals, indicating that Jammu district alone had more than ten times more encroached state land than Srinagar.
“Rajouri district emerged as the worst affected area in Jammu and Kashmir in terms of encroachment on state land with 2.73 lakh kanals found under illegal occupation by land grabbing,” according to official data.
“Rajouri tops the list with 2,73,848 kanals and 12 marlas encroaching on state land, followed by Reasi with 2,26,857 kanals and six marlas and Ramban with 1,73,832 kanals. Jammu district recorded 1,45,487 kanals and six marlas 1,30,403 kanals and 1.5 marlas also crossed the mark of one lakh kanal with 1,19,822 kanals and eight marlas and 1,11,133 kanals and 16 marlas respectively,” the data said.
“Doda recorded 91,957 kanals and five marls of encroached land, followed by Samba district which accounted for 74,196 kanals and three marls of encroached land, while Kishtwar recorded 52,513 kanals and 7.5 marls,” he said.
“In Kashmir Division, Baramulla recorded the highest cleared encroached land with 81,327.65 kanals, followed by Samba in Jammu Division with 74,196 kanals and three marlas, Kupwara with 52,698.1 kanals and Kishtwar with 52 and 513 kanals,” the data revealed.
“Pulwama recorded 42,730.8 kanals of encroached land, followed by Anantnag with 36,984 kanals, Budgam with 21,775.55 kanals and Bandipora with 20,925.65 kanals,” it said.
The data further showed that Shopian recorded 19,034.85 kanals, Ganderbal 19,005.2 kanals, Kulgam 18,853.75 kanals and Srinagar 13,862.95 kanals of cleared encroachments.
The figures were released in response to a query seeking details of state and central government and JDA lands currently under threat and steps being taken to acquire and legalize such land.
The authorities have cleared the illegal records of land holders of state government land under encroachment in Rajouri, Reasi, Ramban, Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, Poonch, Doda, Baramulla, Samba, Kupwara, Kishtwar, Pulwama, Anantnag, Budgam, Bandipora, Shopian and Ganderbal, Kul.
Published – 12 May 2026 13:34 IST
