India, April 3 -- Over 18 lakh kanals of land are encroached across Jammu and Kashmir, with only 29,000 kanals retrieved so far from squatters, official data said.

As per official data, a total of 18,38,735.42 kanals of land have been encroached upon, including 17,22,993 kanals of state land and 1,15,742.42 kanals of forest land.

The data said encroachment entries in revenue records have been expunged.

Revenue department officials said they took action under the provisions of the Land Revenue Act to remove encroachers. However, officials termed the issue a matter of concern and said eviction drives are underway, but clarified that no fixed timeframe has been set yet. "Eviction of encroachers and retrieval of encroached state and forest...