Tamil Nadu’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department has reported that 105.14 acres of temple-owned land, valued at ₹113 crore, has been recovered from encroachments after 999 cases were concluded under the state’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act.
The recovered properties have been handed over to the administrations of the respective temples, according to a department statement reported by Dinamalar. The department did not identify the individual temples, locations or the parties involved in the cases in the information available.
The department also said that 78 cases had been concluded before the forum of Joint Commissioners. Together, these proceedings resulted in the recovery of land that had been identified as belonging to temples and was under encroachment, the statement said.
The recovery forms part of a wider land-measurement exercise being undertaken across Tamil Nadu during the current financial year. The department said action had been initiated to measure 16,657.69 acres of temple land. Of this area, the process of installing boundary stones is under way across 12,373 acres.
The figures indicate that the department’s current effort involves both legal proceedings and physical identification of property boundaries. Measuring land and placing boundary stones are administrative steps intended to establish the extent and location of temple properties, while completed cases enable the department to return recovered land to the relevant temple administrations.
Temple land administration has a direct institutional and financial dimension. The recovered properties are held by individual temple administrations after handover, meaning that the department’s reported action concerns not only the removal of encroachments but also the restoration of control over assets recorded as belonging to religious institutions. The statement, however, did not provide details on the future use, revenue potential or current condition of the recovered land.
The department’s figures also show that the reported recovery is part of a larger process that remains under way. Boundary-stone installation has not yet been completed across the full 16,657.69 acres identified for measurement, with work currently reported on 12,373 acres. The statement did not specify a completion deadline for the remaining survey and demarcation work.
The latest announcement therefore covers three separate administrative outcomes: the conclusion of 999 cases under the department’s legal framework, the conclusion of 78 matters before the Joint Commissioners’ forum, and the recovery and handover of 105.14 acres valued at ₹113 crore. Further details on the temples involved, the locations of the properties and the next stages of the ongoing measurement exercise were not included in the department’s statement.
