Land unit converter

Acres and guntas: reading Karnataka land records

Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh record farmland in acres and guntas, with 40 guntas to an acre and 1,089 square feet to a gunta. An RTC or a sale deed will write an extent as, for example, 2 acres 36 guntas.

That is often shortened to “2.36 acres”, and it is the most common unit mistake in farmland deals. 2 acres 36 guntas is 2.9 acres in decimal, not 2.36 -- the figure after the point is guntas out of 40, not a fraction out of 100. Read a price per acre against the wrong one and the gap is more than half an acre. Choose “Acres and guntas” in the converter above to enter an extent the way the record writes it.

Cents, grounds and ankanams

A cent is one hundredth of an acre, 435.6 square feet, and is how plots are measured in Kerala and much of Tamil Nadu. A ground is 2,400 square feet, used for urban and peri-urban plots around Chennai. An ankanam is 72 square feet, used for house sites in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Tamil Nadu revenue records themselves use hectares and ares.

In Bihar and West Bengal the same one-hundredth of an acre is called a decimal (dismil), so a cent and a decimal are identical.

Ares are not guntas

Maharashtra's 7/12 extract records area in hectares and ares (H.R.). An are is 100 square metres; a gunta is 101.17. They are close enough to be confused and far enough apart to matter: reading an H.R. figure as guntas overstates the area by a little over 1%, which on a large parcel is real money.

Bigha and other units that change by state

A bigha is not one size. It differs from state to state, and in several states from district to district. The values below are the ones we could confirm; where a unit also varies within a state, that is noted. For a specific parcel, the revenue record for that village is the authority.

• Bigha, Rajasthan (pucca): 27,225 sq ft (165 ft x 165 ft), 3,025 sq yd -- Rajasthan uses both a pucca and a kachha bigha, differing by district. Source: Wikipedia: Bigha, AgriZameen: Rajasthan bigha
• Bigha, Rajasthan (kachha): 17,424 sq ft (132 ft x 132 ft), 1,936 sq yd -- Rajasthan uses both a pucca and a kachha bigha, differing by district. Source: Wikipedia: Bigha, AgriZameen: Rajasthan bigha
• Bigha, West Bengal: 14,400 sq ft (20 katha of 720 sq ft). Source: Wikipedia: Katha, LandValueTools: East India units
• Katha, West Bengal: 720 sq ft (16 chhatak of 45 sq ft). Source: Wikipedia: Katha, LandValueTools: East India units
• Bigha, Assam: 14,400 sq ft (5 katha, 100 lessa of 144 sq ft) -- the Cachar region uses a smaller katha, so its bigha differs. Source: Wikipedia: Katha, LandValueTools: East India units
• Katha, Assam: 2,880 sq ft (20 lessa of 144 sq ft) -- the Cachar region uses a smaller katha. Source: Wikipedia: Katha, LandValueTools: East India units
• Bigha, Himachal Pradesh: 8,712 sq ft (0.2 acre), 968 sq yd -- some areas, including parts of Kangra, use other systems. Source: Wikipedia: Bigha, AreaConvert: Himachal bigha
• Kanal, Punjab and Haryana: 5,445 sq ft (20 marla), 8 kanal to an acre -- this is the standard 66-inch karam; districts using a shorter karam, such as parts of Majha, have smaller kanals. Source: Dstar: Punjab and Haryana land units, LandValueTools: Punjab and Haryana units
• Marla, Punjab and Haryana: 272.25 sq ft (30.25 sq yd) -- this is the standard 66-inch karam; districts using a shorter karam have smaller marlas. Source: Dstar: Punjab and Haryana land units, LandValueTools: Punjab and Haryana units, Wikipedia: Marla

Sources

Acre, hectare, square foot and square yard are exact international definitions (1 acre = 4,046.8564224 square metres). Gunta, cent, ground and ankanam are fixed by convention. Checked against Bihar Revenue glossary (decimal = 1/100 acre), Wikipedia: Guntha, Wikipedia: Cent, Wikipedia: Ankanam, LandValueTools: South India units. Last verified 2026-09-24.

Going further with a purchase? See how to verify a survey number and stamp duty and registration.