The diocese covers four districts:Sagar, Raisen, Vidisha and Guna of Madhya Pradesh. Sagar district is the third largest in the Jabalpur revenue division. The district has a total area of 10,252 square kilometers and a population of 5,379,980.
Sagar district lies in the northcentral region of Madhya Pradesh. The origin of the name comes from the Hindi word sagar - meaning lake or sea, apparently because of the large and once beautiful lake around which the town was built.
Sagar district is predominantly a scheduled caste/backward class district. They form about 75 percent of the population of the district. The district has sizable population of tribals. Majority of the population are Hindus followed by Muslims, Sikhs, Jains and Christians.
Hindi is the main language of the people, while Bundelkhandi is the local dialect. Urdu, Marathi and Gujarathi are also spoken.
The exarchate of Sagar was created in 1968 by bifurcating parts from the dioceses of Bhopal, Ajmer and Jaipur. It became a diocese in 1977. Msgr. Clemens Thottungal, CMI, was its first bishop. Msgr. Joseph Pastor Neelankavil, CMI, then succeeded him. Msgr. Anthony Chirayath is the present bishop, who is also the first diocesan priest of the diocese. He became bishop on March 25, 2006.
The district is well accessible by railway. Sagar is 76 kilometers from Bina which is on the Bombay-Delhi rail route. The state capital of Bhopal is about 208 kilometers from Sagar by road.
The climatic condition of the district is semi arid. The maximum temperature goes up to 48.2 degrees Celsius during summer in the month of May and the minimum temperature goes down to 2.0 degrees Celsius during winter in the month of January. The winter season starts from November and continues till the middle of March. January is the coolest month with an average daily maximum temperature of 24 degrees Celsius and an average daily minimum of 6 degrees Celsius. Summer starts from the end of March.
Sagar has industries such as oil and flour milling, saw-milling, ghee processing, handloom cotton weaving, bidi manufacture and railway and engineering works.
Wheat, chickpeas, soghum, and oilseeds are chief crops of the region, there is extensive cattle raising. Sandstone, limestone, iron ore and asbestos deposits are amply found in the district.
The literacy rate is presently 68.08 percent, which is above the state literacy rate of 64.11 percent.