Bigha, katha and decimal to square feet
Updated 19 September 2026
Land in Bangladesh and eastern India is measured in units that no international converter handles, and the answers you find online disagree because the units genuinely vary by region. These are the standard survey values used in Bangladesh and West Bengal.
The values
| Unit | Square feet | Also |
|---|---|---|
| 1 katha | 720 sq ft | 66.89 sq m |
| 1 bigha | 14,400 sq ft | 20 katha |
| 1 decimal (shotok) | 435.6 sq ft | 1/100 of an acre |
| 1 acre | 43,560 sq ft | 3.025 bigha, or 100 decimal |
| 1 hectare | 107,639 sq ft | 2.47 acre, or 7.48 bigha |
| 1 kanal | 5,445 sq ft | 20 marla — Punjab and Pakistan |
| 1 marla | 272.25 sq ft | 1/20 kanal |
Why bigha is not one size
Bigha was never standardised across the subcontinent. In Bangladesh and West Bengal it settled at 14,400 square feet — 20 katha of 720 square feet. In Uttar Pradesh a bigha is about 27,000 square feet; in Rajasthan there are two different bighas, pucca and kaccha; in Assam it is 14,400 square feet again but the katha differs.
So a bigha in a Dhaka land deed and a bigha in a Lucknow one are not the same area. The figures on this page are the Bangladesh and West Bengal values, which is what the converter uses.
Converting in your head
- Katha to square feet: multiply by 720. Five katha is 3,600 sq ft.
- Bigha to katha: multiply by 20.
- Decimal to katha: roughly 0.6 — three decimal is a little under two katha.
- Acre to bigha: multiply by 3. It is really 3.025, which is close enough for a first estimate and not close enough for a deed.
Before you rely on a number
Land documents are the one place to be exact. District records sometimes use local variants, older deeds may be in units that were redefined since, and the area written on a deed may itself differ from what a survey finds. For a transaction, take the figure from the current survey record, not from a conversion.
Questions
- How many square feet is 1 katha?
- 720 square feet, as used in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Twenty katha make a bigha of 14,400 square feet.
- How many bigha in an acre?
- 3.025 bigha, taking a bigha as 14,400 square feet. An acre is 43,560 square feet.
- What is a decimal or shotok?
- One hundredth of an acre — 435.6 square feet. It is the unit most Bangladeshi land records are written in, and it does not vary by district the way katha sometimes does.