Land Measurement Units in India
Bigha, Kanal, Marla, Nali, Killa, Gaj — the same word can mean three different areas depending on the district you're standing in. This pillar maps every traditional unit across India — including the districts where the same word means two different areas — with every value cross-checked against state revenue portals and settlement records.
Quick land unit converter
Thirteen bigha variants are live in India and some districts run two at once — always match the variant to the tehsil on the revenue record, not the district. Full-featured converter with all 30+ units: open the Land Unit Converter →
How big is each unit, really?
Every bar is drawn to true proportion against 1 acre (43,560 sq ft). This is why a "10 bigha" parcel in Himachal is a fraction of a "10 bigha" parcel in Jaipur.
How these units are actually built
Every traditional unit is stacked from a single stride-length measure — the karam. Understand the chain once and every jamabandi entry becomes readable.
| Step | Unit | Definition | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karam | The base pace — a length, not an area | 5.5 ft (linear) |
| 2 | Sarsahi | 1 karam × 1 karam | 30.25 ft² |
| 3 | Marla | 9 sarsahi (3 × 3 karam) | 272.25 ft² |
| 4 | Kanal | 20 marla | 5,445 ft² |
| 5 | Killa / Ghumaon | 8 kanal | 43,560 ft² = 1 acre |
| 6 | Murabba | 25 killa — the "square" of canal-colony Punjab | 25 acres |
The chain that drew North India's fields
The acre is one furlong by one chain — 660 ft × 66 ft — measured with Gunter's 66-foot survey chain, which colonial settlement officers carried across Punjab and the United Provinces. Where older Mughal-era chains survived, they left different bighas behind: the Shahjahani jarib gives today's pucca bigha (27,225 sq ft), the shorter Gantari jarib the kachcha bigha. Two chains, two bighas — sometimes in the same district.
The jarib & Gunter's chain — full history →India's six land measurement systems
Every traditional unit in the country belongs to one of six regional families, each shaped by its own revenue administration and agricultural history.
North Indian
East Indian
West Indian
South Indian
Central Indian
Northeast / Tribal
State-by-state measurement guides
Six states, six different systems. Each guide decodes the units used on that state's revenue portal, with district-level variations.
Uttar Pradesh
Bhulekh UP1 pucca bigha = 20 biswa = 27,225 sq ft. Kachcha bigha is exactly a quarter of that — and both appear on Bhulekh without a label. Buying here? Read the UP agricultural land rules and how to pull a Khasra–Khatauni.
Haryana
JamabandiRecords run in kanal–marla; deals talk in killa. 8 kanal = 1 killa = 1 acre. 2 bigha = 1 killa. Pair with the Haryana buying guide and Jamabandi / Fard explainer.
Rajasthan
Apna KathaTwo bighas in one state. Jaipur–Bikaner belt uses pucca (27,225 sq ft); Kota–Udaipur belt uses kachcha (17,424 sq ft). Confirm the jarib before you sign anything — our Rajasthan buying guide shows how.
Punjab
PLRS25 killa = 1 murabba — the unit large farm deals are quoted in. Same kanal–marla arithmetic as Haryana. See who can buy in Punjab.
Uttarakhand
Bhulekh UKTwo bighas plus a nali. Hill districts use the 756 sq yd bigha (6,806 sq ft) alongside nali–mutthi; plains districts (Haldwani, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar) use the 1,936 sq yd bigha (17,424 sq ft). 1 nali = 16 mutthi = 2,160 sq ft in Kumaon. Outsiders: read Uttarakhand Bhu Kanoon before shortlisting.
Himachal Pradesh
HimBhoomiThe smallest bigha in the corridor: 8,712 sq ft, so 5 bigha ≈ 1 acre. Orchard listings quoted in bigha look bigger than they are. Non-agriculturists: Section 118 rules apply.
Every bigha size in India, largest to smallest
Thirteen live values under one word. This single table is the reason cross-state price comparison in bigha is meaningless without the region attached.
| Region | Sq Yards | Sq Feet | Sq Metres | = Acres | 1 Acre = |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UP — Eastern (Pucca) | 3,025 | 27,225 | 2,529 | 0.625 | 1.60 bigha |
| Rajasthan — North (Pucca) | 3,025 | 27,225 | 2,529 | 0.625 | 1.60 bigha |
| Haryana | 2,420 | 21,780 | 2,023 | 0.500 | 2.00 bigha |
| Punjab | 2,420 | 21,780 | 2,023 | 0.500 | 2.00 bigha |
| Rajasthan — South (Kachcha) | 1,936 | 17,424 | 1,619 | 0.400 | 2.50 bigha |
| Gujarat | 1,936 | 17,424 | 1,619 | 0.400 | 2.50 bigha |
| Uttarakhand — plains | 1,936 | 17,424 | 1,619 | 0.400 | 2.50 bigha |
| West Bengal / Assam | 1,600 | 14,400 | 1,338 | 0.331 | 3.025 bigha |
| MP / Chhattisgarh | 1,333 | 12,000 | 1,115 | 0.275 | 3.63 bigha |
| UP — Noida / Ghaziabad / Hapur | 1,008 | 9,075 | 843 | 0.208 | 4.80 bigha |
| Himachal Pradesh | 968 | 8,712 | 809 | 0.200 | 5.00 bigha |
| UP — Western (Kachcha) | 756 | 6,806 | 632 | 0.156 | 6.40 bigha |
| Uttarakhand — hills | 756 | 6,806 | 632 | 0.156 | 6.40 bigha |
Records speak one language, deals speak another
Revenue records run in the settlement units — kanal–marla in Punjab and Haryana, bigha–biswa–biswansi in UP and Rajasthan, and increasingly hectares on newly digitized khataunis. Brokers and sellers quote in killa, acre and gaj. Every conversion between the two languages is a place where a parcel can quietly shrink. Convert the record, not the pitch — then verify on the ground before token money.
How to read the record itself →One district, two bighas — the 20 confirmed splits
Places where the same word means two different areas inside a single district. No revenue portal warns you about these. Our research classifies 20 confirmed cases across 12 states into five root causes.
Type 1 — Revenue lineage splits
New districts carved from two parent districts, each tehsil keeping its parent's settlement standard.
Gautam Buddha Nagar
UP · formed 1997 from Ghaziabad + Bulandshahr4× gapShahjahanpur
UP · Rohilkhand–Awadh settlement fault line4× gapHapur · Mainpuri
UP · carved from parent districts with mixed standards3–4× gapSanthal Pargana — 6 districts
Jharkhand · Dumka, Jamtara, Deoghar, Godda, Pakur, Sahibganj1.9× gapType 2 — Terrain splits
Districts spanning hills and plains run two systems side by side.
Nainital
Uttarakhand · Kumaon hills + Bhabhar plains2.6× gapThe nali itself varies
Uttarakhand · Kumaon vs Garhwalup to 10.5%Type 3 — Urban–rural splits
West Bengal katha & bigha
N & S 24 Parganas · Howrah · Hooghly · Kolkata fringe2× gapType 4 — Pucca–kachcha splits
Bihar's katha ranges from 720 to 3,267 sq ft — a 4.5× spread under one word.
| District | State | Standard | Local value | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Champaran | Bihar | 1,361 ft² | 3,267 ft² | 2.4× |
| Muzaffarpur | Bihar | 1,361 ft² | 1,901 ft² | 1.4× |
| Saran / Chhapra | Bihar | 1,361 ft² | 1,742 ft² | 1.28× |
| Madhubani (Mithila) | Bihar | 1,361 ft² | 1,450 ft² | 1.07× |
| Ajmer / Bhilwara / Tonk | Rajasthan | 3,025 sq yd | 1,936 sq yd | 1.56× |
| Pali / Sirohi (RJ–GJ border) | Rajasthan | 3,025 sq yd (N) | 1,936 sq yd (S) | 1.56× |
Type 5 — Boundary & historical splits
Una & Kangra
Himachal Pradesh · Punjab border belt1.6× gapReal money, every year
Two sellers both advertise "₹1 Cr per bigha" — one in a 1,008 sq yd village, one in a 756 sq yd village 20 km away. The buyer who doesn't know pays the same for a third less land. On a 5-bigha GBN deal the hidden gap is ₹1.65 Cr; on 10 bigha across the Santhal Pargana boundary, ₹2.36 Cr; on 10 katha across Kolkata's urban–rural line, ₹5 Cr. Every Farmland India listing states area in hectares from the khasra alongside the local unit, precisely so this gap cannot hide.
Read the complete 20-split research →One district, two bighas
In parts of the corridor — Gautam Buddha Nagar included — the same word "bigha" denotes two different areas within a single district, depending on which historical jarib (survey chain) the village was settled under. Buyers who assume the larger variant routinely overpay per usable square foot. Our research maps every split we've found, tehsil by tehsil.
Read the full research: India's hidden measurement splits →Unit explainers
8 guidesConversion guides
12 guidesMaster conversion table — corridor units
| Unit | Where used | Sq Yards | Sq Feet | Per Acre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Killa / Acre | Punjab · Haryana | 4,840 | 43,560 | 1 |
| Bigha (Pucca) | UP · Upper Rajasthan | 3,025 | 27,225 | 1.6 |
| Bigha (Punjab/Haryana) | Punjab · Haryana | 2,420 | 21,780 | 2 |
| Bigha (UK plains / S. Raj / Gujarat) | Haldwani · Kota–Udaipur · Gujarat | 1,936 | 17,424 | 2.5 |
| Bigha (Noida / Ghaziabad / Hapur) | GBN · Ghaziabad · Hapur | 1,008 | 9,075 | 4.8 |
| Bigha (West Bengal / Assam) | WB · Assam · Tripura | 1,600 | 14,400 | 3.025 |
| Bigha (MP / Chhattisgarh) | Madhya Pradesh · Chhattisgarh | 1,333 | 12,000 | 3.63 |
| Bigha (Himachal) | Himachal Pradesh | 968 | 8,712 | 5 |
| Bigha (W. UP kachcha / UK hills) | Agra–Meerut–Bareilly belt · Nainital hills | 756.25 | 6,806 | 6.4 |
| Kanal | Punjab · Haryana · HP · J&K | 605 | 5,445 | 8 |
| Nali | Uttarakhand hills | 240 | 2,160 | ≈20.2 |
| Biswa (Pucca) | 1/20 of pucca bigha | 151.25 | 1,361 | 32 |
| Marla | 1/20 of kanal | 30.25 | 272.25 | 160 |
| Ghumaon | J&K · parts of HP & Punjab | 4,840 | 43,560 | 1 |
| Nali sub-unit: Mutthi | Uttarakhand hills (1/16 nali) | 15 | 135 | ≈323 |
| Biswansi | UP (1/20 biswa) | 7.56 | 68 | 640 |
| Sarsahi | Punjab · Haryana (1 karam²) | 3.36 | 30.25 | 1,440 |
| Gaj / Sq Yard | Delhi NCR plots | 1 | 9 | 4,840 |
| Cent / Decimal | TN · Kerala · KA · AP · TG · Bihar · Jharkhand | 48.4 | 435.6 | 100 |
| Guntha | Maharashtra · Karnataka · AP · Goa · Gujarat | 121 | 1,089 | 40 |
| Ground | Tamil Nadu (urban) | 267 | 2,400 | 18.15 |
| Ankanam | Andhra Pradesh · Karnataka | 8 | 72 | 605 |
| Kuncham | Kerala · Andhra Pradesh | 484 | 4,356 | 10 |
| Katha (WB / Assam) | West Bengal · Assam | 80 | 720 | 60.5 |
| Katha (Bihar — Patna std) | Bihar (= 1 biswa UP) | 151.25 | 1,361.25 | 32 |
| Dhur | Bihar | 7.5625 | 68.06 | 640 |
| Chatak | West Bengal | 5 | 45 | 968 |
| Hectare | Official records (metric) | 11,960 | 107,639 | 0.405 |
Deep research
5 guides| Where | The trap | Gap | Verify via |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gautam Buddha Nagar, UP | Pucca vs kachcha bigha in one district | 27,225 vs 6,806 ft² | Bhulekh UP ↗ |
| Jaipur vs Kota belt, Rajasthan | Shahjahani vs Gantari jarib bigha | 27,225 vs 17,424 ft² | Apna Khata ↗ |
| Hills vs plains, Uttarakhand | Nali–mutthi vs bigha systems | 2,160 ft² nali vs 17,424 ft² bigha | Bhulekh UK ↗ |
| Himachal orchards | Smallest bigha in the corridor | 8,712 ft² — 5 per acre | HimBhoomi ↗ |
How to confirm which standard applies to your plot
Four steps. Each one takes minutes and removes an entire category of risk.
Identify the tehsil, not just the district
In most lineage and terrain splits it's the tehsil that determines the standard, not the district. Get the tehsil name off the khasra number before you calculate anything. Gautam Buddha Nagar alone runs two different standards across three tehsils.
Pull the khasra and work from hectares
Official records state area in hectares, which is never ambiguous. Convert from there: hectares × 11,959.9 = sq yd. A khasra showing 0.3021 ha = 3,613 sq yd. In Noida Sadar (1,008 sq yd bigha) that's 3.58 bigha; in Jewar (756 sq yd) the same land is 4.78 bigha. Same parcel, same hectare figure, very different bigha count. How to read the khasra →
Ask the patwari the biswa question
The one question that settles it: "Yahaan bigha kitne biswa ka hai?" The biswa count gives you the standard immediately — 5 biswa = 756 sq yd, 6⅔ biswa = 1,008 sq yd, 20 biswa = 3,025 sq yd.
If acquisition is possible, think in square metres
Any government body — NHAI, YEIDA, a development authority — calculates compensation in square metres at the published circle rate. Convert the local unit to sq m before negotiating, never the other way round. Circle rates explained →
How Farmland India handles this
Every parcel we review is checked at three levels: the hectare area on the official khasra, the local unit and its district variant, and a physical demarcation where the parcel is being marketed by area. Listings publish both the local unit and the sq ft equivalent, so no measurement gap survives to the enquiry stage. The full 12-step review →
Official government sources
Unit values on this page are the standard settlement figures published by these portals and district settlement reports. Where districts deviate, the deviation is documented in the linked state guides.
Frequently asked
quick answersWhy does a bigha vary so much between states?
Because it was never a standardized imperial unit — each princely state and settlement survey defined it from its own jarib (chain length). British settlement officers standardized some regions to Gunter's chain (giving the acre-linked values) while older Mughal-era chains survived elsewhere. The result: at least thirteen live bigha values across India today, from 756 sq yd in western UP to 3,025 sq yd in eastern UP. Full state-wise breakdown →
What unit are official land records kept in?
Depends on the state and the survey vintage: kanal–marla in Punjab and Haryana, bigha–biswa–biswansi in UP and Rajasthan, nali–mutthi in the Uttarakhand hills — and many freshly digitized records now show hectares alongside or instead of traditional units. Always convert from what the record says, not what the seller quotes. How to read the record →
How do I verify the actual area before buying?
Three layers: match the khasra/jamabandi area against the sale agreement; get the parcel physically measured (demarcation/nishandehi through the revenue office, or a licensed surveyor with total station); and confirm which unit variant your district uses on the state portal. Area mismatch is one of the most common disputes we see in review. The 12-step checklist →
Bigha, acre, hectare — which should I think in?
Think in square feet or acres for comparison, because they never change; use the local unit only for reading records and talking to sellers. 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft; 1 hectare = 2.471 acres = 107,639 sq ft. Everything else on this page maps back to those two. Use the converter →
Bigha, Biswa, Kanal — aksar poochhe jaane waale sawaal
1 bigha mein kitna hota hai UP mein?
UP mein 1 pucca bigha = 20 biswa = 27,225 sq ft ≈ 0.625 acre. Kachcha bigha uska chauthai — 6,806 sq ft — hota hai. Bhulekh UP par area bigha–biswa mein likha hota hai; pucca ya kachcha ka anumaan district se lagaayein. Poora UP guide padhein →
Haryana mein 1 killa kitna hota hai?
1 killa = 8 kanal = 160 marla = 43,560 sq ft = 1 acre. Jamabandi records kanal–marla mein hote hain, lekin sauda killa mein hota hai. 2 bigha = 1 killa. Haryana guide padhein →
Rajasthan mein pucca aur kachcha bigha mein kya fark hai?
Pucca bigha (Shahjahani jarib) — Jaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur belt — 27,225 sq ft. Kachcha bigha (Gantari jarib) — Kota, Udaipur, Ajmer belt — 17,424 sq ft. Zameen kharidne se pehle district ka jarib confirm karein. Rajasthan guide padhein →
1 acre mein kitne bigha hote hain?
State par nirbhar karta hai: UP (pucca) mein 1.6 bigha, Punjab–Haryana mein 2 bigha, Uttarakhand plains mein 2.5 bigha, aur Himachal mein poore 5 bigha = 1 acre. Isi liye alag states ke rate seedha compare nahin hote. Upar converter use karein →
Uttarakhand mein 1 bigha kitna hota hai?
Do jawaab hain, aur yahi sabse badi galti hai. Pahaadi ilaakon (Nainital hills, Almora, Pauri) mein 1 bigha = 756 sq yd = 6,806 sq ft. Maidani ilaakon (Haldwani, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar) mein 1 bigha = 1,936 sq yd = 17,424 sq ft — dhai guna zyada. Dono Bhulekh par ek hi district ke neeche dikhte hain. Tehsil check karein, district nahin. Uttarakhand guide padhein →
Noida-Greater Noida mein bigha kitna hota hai?
Noida Sadar aur Dadri tehsil mein 1 bigha = 1,008 sq yd = 9,075 sq ft (6⅔ biswa, purana Ghaziabad standard). Lekin Jewar tehsil mein — Jewar Airport belt — 1 bigha = sirf 756 sq yd = 6,806 sq ft, kyunki wo hissa Bulandshahr se aaya hai. Ek hi district, 33% kam zameen. Sarkari acquisition muawza 3,025 sq yd pucca bigha par calculate hota hai. GBN research padhein →
Uttarakhand mein nali kya hoti hai?
Nali Uttarakhand ke pahaadi districts (Nainital, Almora, Pauri) ki unit hai: 1 nali = 16 mutthi = 2,160 sq ft, yaani lagbhag 20 nali = 1 acre. Plains (Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar) mein bigha chalti hai. Uttarakhand guide padhein →