Bhubaneswar: In a revelation that would surprise many, law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Wednesday said records indicate that Lord Jagannath temple of Puri owns landed property in Sindh province of Pakistan, suggesting the sibling deities’ landholdings extended beyond present-day India’s borders.The minister’s remarks came two days after the Odisha cabinet approved the Shree Jagannath Temple Land Management Rules, 2026 to streamline the identification, settlement, protection and management of temple lands across the state.According to official records, Lord Jagannath owns around 60,426.943 acres of land across 24 districts of Odisha. The temple also possesses 395.252 acres in six other states, including West Bengal (322.930 acres), Maharashtra (28.21 acres), Madhya Pradesh (25.11 acres), Andhra Pradesh (17.02 acres), Chhattisgarh (1.7 acres) and Bihar (0.27 acres).“We have come across records suggesting that Lord Jagannath’s landed property was not confined to Indian states alone. The temple‘s property was also spread across the Sindh province of Pakistan,” Harichandan told reporters.The minister, however, did not specify the extent of the land in Pakistan or elaborate on the nature of the documents that establish the temple’s ownership there.He acknowledged that reclaiming the property would neither be legally nor practically feasible in the present circumstances. “We know it is not practically or legally possible to reclaim Lord Jagannath’s land in Pakistan. People have been living on those lands for several generations since Partition,” Harichandan said.Officials said the exercise is part of a broader effort to create a comprehensive record of the temple’s assets, many of which are spread across different states and have been the subject of disputes, encroachments and ownership-related challenges over the years.
