The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Department has identified nearly 9,648 acres of temple lands that are encroached upon in Coimbatore Zone comprising Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and the Nilgiris districts.
Work on identification of temple lands and other properties that are encroached upon began from March 1. The Madras High Court directed the State Government and the HR & CE Board to identify the temple properties under encroachment. The department had also been directed to collate the information about temple lands and upload them on its websites.
Based on the directions, Joint Commissioner of HR & CE K. Rajamanickam of Coimbatore Zone had hired 55 retired officials - 24 retired tahsildhars and 31 land surveyors - to assist in identification of lands and properties belonging to temples in this zone. Land and other properties of listed temples identified in the Coimbatore Zone are - 777 acres of wet lands belonging to 62 temples, 10,532 acres dry lands belonging to 193 temples.
Similarly 146 acres of wet lands belonging to 41 non-listed temples and 13,131 acres of dry lands belonging to 569 non-listed temples and rainfed lands of 13,298 acres of non-listed temples were also identified.
Mr. Rajamanickam said that 80 % of the work on identification of temple properties was over. It would take at least another two months to collate the details and send it to the State Commissioner.
