Kanal: the unit Punjab and Haryana records are written in
Kanal is one of the few traditional units that holds still. Eight kanal make an acre, twenty marla make a kanal, and everybody from Amritsar to Sohna reads it the same way.
One kanal is 5,445 sq ft, which works out to 605 sq. yd. Because the value is fixed, kanal pricing is comparatively safe to negotiate in, unlike a bigha quote where you first have to establish which bigha is on the table.
In Haryana, land through the Gurugram, Sohna and Naugaon belt is frequently described in kanal and marla in the older jamabandi, even when the sale itself is written in square yards. Learning to read that column saves you a lot of back and forth with the patwari. Below marla sits the sarsai, a ninth of a marla, which still appears in revenue arithmetic.
A sentence worth keeping ready for a local seller: a 3,000 sq. yd. farm land is almost exactly five kanal, and a 1,500 sq. yd. farm land is two and a half.
Typically used for: Revenue records and land sales across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and J&K.
Where you'll hear it: Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh
Also called: Written as kanal in jamabandi records, paired with marla and sarsai
Quick facts
- Exact value
- 5,445 sq ft
- In an acre
- 8 kanal
- In marla
- 20 marla
- In square yards
- 605 sq. yd.
How kanal changes from place to place
The word stays the same, the ground does not. Here is what one kanal 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Punjab and Haryana | Kanal | 5,445 sq ft | 605 sq. yd. | The standard value, eight kanal to the acre. |
| Jammu & Kashmir | Kanal | 5,445 sq ft | 605 sq. yd. | Same value, and the default unit for residential land there. |
| Himachal Pradesh | Kanal | 5,445 sq ft | 605 sq. yd. | Used alongside bigha and biswa in hill districts. |
If a seller quotes you in kanal, 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 Kanal 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 5,445 sq ft read back in the terms people actually use, state by state.
| Region | Local term | Your area |
|---|---|---|
| Haryana (Gurugram, Sohna, Naugaon) | Bigha | 0.2 bigha |
| Haryana and Punjab | Kanal | 1 kanal |
| Haryana and Punjab | Marla | 20 marla |
| Rajasthan (Alwar, Jaipur) | Pucca bigha | 0.2 pucca bigha |
| Rajasthan villages | Kachcha bigha | 0.6 kachcha bigha |
| Western Uttar Pradesh | Bigha | 0.2017 bigha |
| Uttar Pradesh and Haryana | Biswa | 4.0333 biswa |
| Gujarat | Vigha | 0.3125 vigha |
| Gujarat and Maharashtra | Guntha | 5 guntha |
| Madhya Pradesh | Bigha | 0.4538 bigha |
| Bihar and Jharkhand | Katha | 4.0007 katha |
| West Bengal | Cottah (katha) | 7.5625 cottah (katha) |
| Assam | Katha | 1.8906 katha |
| Uttarakhand hills | Bigha | 0.8003 bigha |
| Tamil Nadu and Kerala | Cent | 12.5 cent |
| Chennai | Ground | 2.2688 ground |
| Andhra Pradesh and Telangana | Ankanam | 75.63 ankanam |
| Delhi NCR | Gaj (square yard) | 605 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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