Indian land units — bigha, kanal, ground, cent, marla decoded

Quick frame: India has 15+ regional land units that vary by state — sometimes the SAME unit means different sizes in different states. Buying property without knowing exact conversions is risky. Use the Indian Unit Converter for any pair.

The 8 most common units

Unit	Where used	Standard size
Bigha	UP / Bihar / Rajasthan / Punjab	Varies (see below)
Kanal	Punjab / Haryana / J&K	5,400 sqft
Marla	Punjab / Haryana	270 sqft
Ground	Tamil Nadu	2,400 sqft
Cent	South India / Kerala	435.6 sqft
Guntha	Maharashtra / Karnataka	1,089 sqft
Acre	Pan-India	43,560 sqft
Hectare	Land records	107,639 sqft

Bigha — the great state-wise mess

Bigha is the single biggest source of confusion in Indian land deals. Each state has a different definition.

State	Bigha size
UP (West)	27,225 sqft (1 pucca bigha)
UP (East)	5,400 sqft (1 kachcha bigha)
Bihar	27,220 sqft
Rajasthan	27,225 sqft
Punjab / Haryana	9,070 sqft
MP / Chhattisgarh	14,400 sqft
Gujarat	17,427 sqft (vigha)
Bengal	14,400 sqft
Assam	14,400 sqft

Always specify which bigha when buying property. UP's pucca bigha is 5x its kachcha bigha — same word, vastly different meaning.

SI conversions

• 1 acre = 4,047 sqm = 43,560 sqft
• 1 hectare = 10,000 sqm = 2.47 acres
• 1 sqm = 10.76 sqft

Why so many units?

These are pre-British administrative units that survived in regional language and revenue records. British surveying introduced acres / hectares for unified administration, but rural land records, oral transactions, and panchayat documents still use traditional units.

The Modi govt's Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP) is slowly digitising this — but reading old documents requires knowing your local unit.

Common buying mistakes

1. Assuming bigha = bigha across states. A buyer from Mumbai negotiating UP land at "₹X per bigha" without specifying pucca / kachcha can pay 5x the right rate.
2. Mixing super built-up with land. Real estate brokers sometimes quote "total area = land + super built-up". Always separate the two.
3. Buying without survey number. The land's revenue survey number is the only foolproof identifier. Match against state govt's online land records.

Quick conversion shortcuts

• 1 acre = 100 cent = 18 marla = 8 kanal (approx)
• 1 acre = 4 ground (Tamil Nadu)
• 1 acre = 40 guntha (Maharashtra)
• 1 acre = 1.6 bigha (UP pucca)

Use the Indian Unit Converter for exact numbers.

FAQ

Q. Why do property listings still use bigha? A. Local convention. In Tier-2 / Tier-3 cities, sellers and buyers think in bigha. National listings use sqft for clarity.

Q. RERA and land units? A. RERA requires builders to quote in sqft (carpet area). But for raw land transactions outside RERA scope, traditional units still apply.

Q. Can I always convert exactly? A. For SI units (sqft, sqm, acre, hectare): yes. For traditional units, exact conversion depends on which sub-region's definition — check local revenue dept.

Q. Are units standardising? A. Slowly. Govt revenue records increasingly use sqm + acre alongside traditional units. But oral and informal transactions persist with old units.