Hectare: the unit your land records are written in
You may never negotiate in hectares, but you will certainly read them. Revenue records, jamabandi extracts and survey maps across India are maintained in hectares and ares.
A hectare is 10,000 square metres, which comes to 1,07,639 sq ft or about 2.471 acres. It is the metric standard adopted for official land administration, so the number on your khasra will almost never match the number the seller quoted you in bigha or katha until you convert it.
When you pull a jamabandi, the area often appears as something like 0.4047, meaning 0.4047 hectare, which is exactly one acre. Smaller holdings show up in are, where one are is 100 square metres, roughly 1,076 sq ft, and in the Hindi belt you will hear that same are called a decimal or dismil in casual conversation.
Always reconcile three figures before you pay: the hectare value in the revenue record, the local unit the seller quoted, and the square yard figure written into the sale agreement. If those three do not agree, stop and find out why.
Typically used for: Revenue records, mutation entries, agricultural surveys and government notifications.
Where you'll hear it: Government land records, revenue maps and agricultural surveys
Also called: Divided into 100 are, and one are is 100 sq m
Quick facts
- Exact value
- 1,07,639 sq ft
- In acres
- 2.471 acre
- In square metres
- 10,000 sq m
- Sub unit
- 100 are = 1 hectare
How hectare changes from place to place
The word stays the same, the ground does not. Here is what one hectare works out to in the regions where people use it, so you know exactly what you are being quoted.
| Region or usage | Local term | Square feet | Square yards | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All India revenue records | Hectare and are | 1,07,639 sq ft | 11,960 sq. yd. | The metric standard used in jamabandi, khasra and khatian extracts. |
| Hindi belt spoken usage | Decimal / dismil | 435.6 sq ft | 48.4 sq. yd. | A hundredth of an acre, the same size as a southern cent. |
| Maharashtra and Gujarat | Are | 1,076 sq ft | 119.56 sq. yd. | One are is 100 sq m, roughly one guntha. |
If a seller quotes you in hectare, ask which version they mean before you talk price, then get the same area written in square yards and square feet. That is the figure the sale deed, the registry and any bank valuation will go by.
One Hectare in every other unit
Land unit converter
Convert between bigha, biswa, katha, guntha, kanal, marla, cent, acre, hectare, square yards (gaj) and square feet.
What locals would call this area
The same word can mean very different ground depending on where you are standing. Here is your 1,07,639 sq ft read back in the terms people actually use, state by state.
| Region | Local term | Your area |
|---|---|---|
| Haryana (Gurugram, Sohna, Naugaon) | Bigha | 3.9537 bigha |
| Haryana and Punjab | Kanal | 19.77 kanal |
| Haryana and Punjab | Marla | 395.37 marla |
| Rajasthan (Alwar, Jaipur) | Pucca bigha | 3.9537 pucca bigha |
| Rajasthan villages | Kachcha bigha | 11.86 kachcha bigha |
| Western Uttar Pradesh | Bigha | 3.9866 bigha |
| Uttar Pradesh and Haryana | Biswa | 79.73 biswa |
| Gujarat | Vigha | 6.1776 vigha |
| Gujarat and Maharashtra | Guntha | 98.84 guntha |
| Madhya Pradesh | Bigha | 8.9699 bigha |
| Bihar and Jharkhand | Katha | 79.09 katha |
| West Bengal | Cottah (katha) | 149.5 cottah (katha) |
| Assam | Katha | 37.37 katha |
| Uttarakhand hills | Bigha | 15.82 bigha |
| Tamil Nadu and Kerala | Cent | 247.11 cent |
| Chennai | Ground | 44.85 ground |
| Andhra Pradesh and Telangana | Ankanam | 1,495 ankanam |
| Delhi NCR | Gaj (square yard) | 11,960 gaj (square yard) |
Local values are the ones commonly used in each area. Districts and villages sometimes work with their own figures, so always ask the seller which version they mean and get the area written in square yards on paper.
PaperworkQuestions people ask
Why is one bigha not the same everywhere?+
Because bigha was never standardised. It grew out of local practice, so each region settled on its own size. A pucca bigha in Rajasthan is about 27,225 sq ft, a kachcha bigha in the same state is roughly 9,075 sq ft, Gujarat's vigha is 17,424 sq ft, Madhya Pradesh works with about 12,000 sq ft, and the hill districts of Uttarakhand use a bigha closer to 6,804 sq ft. Always ask which bigha is being quoted, then get the area restated in square yards.
What is the difference between a bigha, a biswa and a katha?+
They are the same idea in different languages. A bigha is the parent unit, and it gets divided into twenty parts. In Haryana and Uttar Pradesh those parts are called biswa, and in Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal they are called katha. Since the parent bigha varies, so do biswa and katha, which is why a Bihar katha is about 1,361 sq ft while a Bengal cottah is only 720 sq ft.
Which local units are used around Sohna, Naugaon and Alwar?+
On the Haryana side you will hear bigha, biswa, kanal and marla, with kanal and marla appearing in the jamabandi. On the Alwar side of Rajasthan it is mostly pucca and kachcha bigha. Sale deeds through the whole belt are written in square yards, which is the unit we quote in.
How many guntha, kanal, marla or cent make an acre?+
Forty guntha, eight kanal, 160 marla or 100 cent. All four are standardised, so those numbers hold wherever you are. Bigha is the odd one out, and the answer there depends entirely on the state.
Why do land records use hectares when nobody speaks in hectares?+
Revenue departments moved to metric for record keeping, so jamabandi, khasra and khatian extracts carry hectares and ares. Everyday conversation stayed with the traditional units. You need both: hectares to read your papers and square yards to sign your deed.
What is the difference between vigha and bigha?+
The same unit with different spellings. Vigha is the Gujarati form, bigha the North Indian one. A Gujarat vigha is usually taken as 17,424 sq ft, which is not what a Haryana bigha means, so the spelling difference hides a real size difference.
Which unit should I use when comparing two pieces of land?+
Square feet, every time. Convert both offers to a price per square foot and the comparison becomes honest in seconds. Headline prices per bigha or per katha hide too much because the units themselves are not fixed.
How big is a 1,500 sq. yd. farm land in local terms?+
A 1,500 sq. yd. farm land is 13,500 sq ft. That is about 2.5 kanal or 50 marla in Haryana language, roughly 0.5 pucca bigha in Alwar, about 0.77 vigha in Gujarat terms, 12.4 guntha, just under 10 katha in Bihar, 31 cent in the south, or 0.31 acre.
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