In Chandrapur district, Christians numbered 266 in 1901, of whom 48 were Europeans, 14 Eurasians and 204 local people.
The Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) priests from Kerala started working in the diocese of Ambikapur-Raigarh at the request of Jesuit Bishop Sevrin from 1954, but they were not permitted to practice their the Oriental rite publicly. There was a proposal in 1959 to divide the diocese and place the CMI priests in charge of Raigarh, where they would be able to exercise their rite freely, but this proposal did not materialize.
In 1960, CMI Prior-General Father Maurus sent a letter to Archbishop Eugene D’Souza of Nagpur requesting that a section of the archdiocese be entrusted to the congregation. Archbishop Eugene wrote to the Apostolic Internuncio, J. R. Knox, and the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith about the proposal. Both the Vatican congregations concerned and the Carmelites accepted the principle of territorial jurisdiction.
Pope John XXIII established the first Syro-Malabar Ordinariate of Chanda on 31 March 1962 with Msgr. Januarius Palathuruthy CMI as its first Ecclesiastical Superior with the faculties of Apostolic Exarch. It was carved out from the Archeparchy of Nagpur. TheOrdinariate was raised to the status of an Apostolic Exarchate on 29 July 1968 and Msgr Januarius was made its Apostolic Exarch. On 26 February 1977 Pope Paul VI raised it to the status of an Eparchy and Msgr. Januarius was appointed its first bishop. It comprises the civil districts of Wardha, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra state and Adilabad in Andra Pradesh. On 3 July 1990 Mar Vijay Anand Nedumpuram CMI succeeded Bishop Januarius as its second Bishop. On 28 March 1995 Bishop Januarius was called to his eternal rest. The civil district of Adilabad was bifurcated from the Eparchy of Chanda and the new Eparchy of Adilabad was established in 1999.
After the retirement of Mar VijayanandNedumpuram, Fr Ephrem Nariculam was appointed the third bishop of Chanda on 31 July 2015 and was consecrated and installed on 24 October 2014.