Bangladesh Land Units Explained: Katha, Bigha, Chatak & Shotangsho

The whole chain at a glance

• 1 chatak = 45 sq ft (5 sq yd).
• 16 chatak = 1 katha = 720 sq ft = 80 sq yd.
• 20 katha = 1 bigha = 14,400 sq ft = 1,600 sq yd.
• 1 shotangsho (decimal) = 1/100 acre = 435.6 sq ft.
• 1 acre = 100 decimal = 3.025 bigha = 60.5 katha.

The whole system is really built on the cubit

Bengal’s land units are not laid out in feet or yards but in hath (cubits) — one hath being 18 inches, or 1.5 ft. The bigha is a square of 80 hath × 80 hath = 6,400 square hath, which is exactly 120 ft × 120 ft = 14,400 sq ft (1,600 square yards). Divide that square into 20 and you get the katha — 720 sq ft (80 sq yd, 320 sq hath); divide the katha into 16 and you get the chatak (45 sq ft, 20 sq hath). In metric, 1 katha = 66.89 m² and 1 bigha = 1,337.8 m². Convert it directly with katha → square feet.

Shotangsho (decimal) — the unit your paperwork uses, and where its name comes from

People speak in katha and bigha, but khatian, porcha and deed documents almost always record area in shotangsho (also written shotok, satak, or simply “decimal”) and in acres. One shotangsho is one hundredth of an acre = 435.6 sq ft. That makes this the conversion people actually need most: 1 katha = 1.6529 decimal and 1 bigha = 33.06 decimal.

The odd name is a leftover of the British revenue survey. Land was chained with a Gunter’s chain — 66 ft long, divided into 100 links — and exactly ten square chains make one acre, so surveyed areas came out as acres carried to two decimal places. The second decimal place then became a unit in its own right. The neat part: those 66 ft are exactly 44 hath, which is where the old cubit grid and the English acre lock together at all. Below the decimal sits the ojutangsho — one ten-thousandth of an acre, 4.356 sq ft.

⚠️ There are two bighas. The customary bigha is 14,400 sq ft = 33.0579 decimal, but Bangladeshi statute and reference works define a “standard bigha” as a flat 0.33 acre = 14,374.8 sq ft. The difference is 25.2 sq ft per bigha — negligible on a house plot, not negligible on a holding.

The Bangladeshi katha vs the Indian katha

This is the single biggest source of confusion. In India the bigha ranges from roughly 1,500 to 2,530 m² by state, with separate “pucca” and “kachha” sizes — because land records are a state subject there and no single central definition of the bigha exists at all. For the katha specifically: West Bengal’s rural katha is also 720 sq ft (so those two agree), but Bihar’s is 1,361.25 sq ft and Assam’s is 2,880 sq ft, because Assam uses 5 katha to the bigha rather than 20. A katha figure does not travel across the border unchecked. Full breakdown: Indian land units by state.

The honest qualification: Bangladesh is not perfectly uniform either. Government records, deeds and the urban market all use the one value — but rural usage in some districts still counts a local bigha of 30, 33 or 35 decimal, and around 60 decimal in Rangpur. Check the customary figure where the land actually is.

Kani, gonda, kora, kranti & til

The greater Chittagong, Noakhali and Comilla region uses a separate system, built on the 8-hath nol — a measuring rod of 8 cubits, or 12 ft. One kani is 120 square nol = 7,680 square hath = 17,280 sq ft = 24 katha = 39.67 decimal.

⚠️ The kani is not standardised, and the sources genuinely disagree. The table above uses the 8-hath rod basis (17,280 sq ft). Also in circulation: the “kacha kani”, rounded to a flat 40 decimal (17,424 sq ft — about 0.8% larger), and the large agricultural “sai kani” of 120 to 160 decimal (commonly 120 in Noakhali). The kora is disputed too: the Ministry of Land’s own table, the square-hath basis and the old khatian share-ladder all give 1 kora = 3 kranti, while several widely-copied sources print 4 — we follow the three that agree. Either way, the value in your own local record is the one that governs.

🧾 Same words, two meanings. In older khatians, ana / gonda / kora / kranti / til usually denote a share of the holding, not an area: 16 ana is the whole property, 1 ana = 20 gonda, 1 gonda = 4 kora, 1 kora = 3 kranti, 1 kranti = 20 til. The ratios are identical to the area chain, which is exactly why the two get confused — treat a khatian’s “3 ana” as an area and your answer will be wrong.

What the law actually says

The shotangsho is the statutory unit. Bangladesh’s Land Development Tax Act 2023 assesses tax per dag in shotangsho and rounds any fraction up to the next whole shotangsho, with a minimum of one — so the smallest area the tax system recognises is 435.6 sq ft. The same Act gives the only statutory bigha figure there is: it waives agricultural tax on holdings up to “8.25 acres or 25 bigha”, which fixes 1 bigha = 0.33 acre = 33 shotangsho exactly.

There is a genuine unresolved tension here worth knowing about. The Weights and Measures Standards Act 2018 — which repealed the 1982 Ordinance that most websites still cite as current — makes SI units the standard throughout Bangladesh, and its §68 says that no measurement in any non-standard unit may be stated in any law, rule, order, contract or other document (dolil, the ordinary word for a deed). Yet the land legislation of 2023 assesses in shotangsho and defines its ceiling in bigha, and every khatian is written in acre-derived units. The two statutes have simply never been reconciled, and we found no exemption for land records.

Where the area appears: a khatian (also porcha, or record of rights) lists the holding for one dag — a numbered plot within a mouza, the base cadastral unit, numbered from the north-west of the mouza map to the south-east. Note the Ministry of Land’s own caution: a khatian is a record of rights, not a deed of ownership. Where two survey generations disagree (CS, SA, RS, BS), the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act makes the most recent finally-published record for that mouza presumed correct until proved otherwise — a rebuttable presumption, not a guarantee.

Quick conversion reference table

Convert these units

• Katha to Square Feet
• Katha to Decimal (shotangsho)
• Bigha to Katha
• Bigha to Decimal (shotangsho)
• Bigha to Acre
• Chatak to Decimal
• Katha to Square Metres

See all area & land-unit conversions →

For the state-variable Indian units (bigha, biswa, katha, dhur), see our companion guide: Indian Land Units by State.

Frequently asked questions

How many square feet is 1 katha in Bangladesh?

1 katha = 720 sq ft (66.89 m²). It is also 80 square yards, 16 chatak, and 1.6529 shotangsho (decimal). This is the value used in deeds, land records and urban real estate throughout the country.

How many katha are in 1 bigha in Bangladesh?

20 katha make 1 bigha, so 1 bigha = 14,400 sq ft (1,337.8 m²) — the pre-partition Bengal standard. Note that some rural districts still count a local bigha instead: 30 or 35 decimal in places, and about 60 decimal in Rangpur.

How much is 1 bigha in decimal (shotangsho)?

1 bigha = 33.06 decimal. It is very often quoted as "33 decimal", which is a rounding — the exact figure is 33.0579. Bangladeshi statutes go the other way and define a "standard bigha" as a flat 0.33 acre, which is 14,374.8 sq ft — 25.2 sq ft less than the customary bigha.

What is a shotangsho, and is it the same as a decimal?

Yes — shotangsho (শতাংশ), shotok, satak and "decimal" all mean the same unit: one hundredth of an acre, 435.6 sq ft (40.47 m²). It is the unit most Bangladeshi land records are actually written in, which is why converting to and from it matters more than any other conversion here.

Why is there a unit called a "decimal" at all?

It is a leftover of the British revenue survey. Land was chained with a Gunter's chain — 66 ft long and divided into 100 links — and ten square chains make exactly one acre, so surveyors' areas came out as acres carried to two decimal places. The second decimal place became a unit in its own right: 1/100 acre = 435.6 sq ft. South India calls the identical unit a "cent"; Bengali calls it শতাংশ, literally "hundredth part".

How many square feet is 1 chatak?

1 chatak = 45 sq ft (4.18 m²), and 16 chatak make one katha. Beware a common error: some pages say 20 chatak to the katha, which contradicts the 45 sq ft chatak they print on the same page. 16 is correct — 16 × 45 = 720.

Is the Bangladeshi katha the same as the Indian katha?

Not reliably. West Bengal's rural katha is also 720 sq ft, so those two agree — but Bihar's katha is 1,361.25 sq ft and Assam's is 2,880 sq ft, because Assam uses 5 katha to the bigha rather than 20. Never carry a katha figure across the border without checking which one it is.

What is a kani, and how big is it?

A kani is the traditional unit of the greater Chittagong, Noakhali and Comilla region. Its subdivisions are fixed — 1 kani = 20 gonda, 1 gonda = 4 kora, 1 kora = 3 kranti, 1 kranti = 20 til — but the size of the kani itself is not standardised. On the 8-hath rod basis it is 17,280 sq ft (24 katha, 39.67 decimal); the "kacha kani" rounds it to a flat 40 decimal (17,424 sq ft); and the large agricultural "sai kani" runs 120 to 160 decimal. Use the value in your own local records.

How many bigha are in an acre and a hectare?

1 acre = 3.025 bigha = 60.5 katha = 100 decimal. The old surveyors' way of saying it is "1 acre = 3 bigha 8 chatak", which is the same thing: 8 chatak is 360 sq ft, exactly the half-katha left over. 1 hectare = 7.47 bigha.

Sources & method

Every number on this page is computed from four anchors — chatak 45, katha 720, bigha 14,400 and acre 43,560 square feet — rather than typed in, and the whole chain is re-verified automatically on each build. Those anchors were cross-checked against independent sources: Rowlett, How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement (the Bengal bigha standardised at 1,600 square yards); sizes.com (the katha as 1/20 of that bigha, 80 square yards); the Samsad Bengali–English Dictionary (chatak = 4.18 m², i.e. 45 sq ft, from a scholarly rather than a real-estate source); Wikipedia’s Bigha and Katha (unit); and the standard Bangladeshi land-measurement compilations. Where those sources conflict — the size of the kani, whether a kora is 3 or 4 kranti, the rural bigha — the conflict is reported rather than hidden. Figures we could not corroborate twice are deliberately omitted.

Why compute rather than transcribe an official table? Because the official tables do not agree with each other. Two Ministry of Land pages, both last updated on the same day, give the decimal as 435.6 sq ft on one and 432 sq ft on the other, and the katha as 720 sq ft on one and 715 sq ft on the other. The ministry’s main conversion page also carries lines that do not survive arithmetic at all — “3 Bighas = 1 Acre approx. (1600 square yards)” (1,600 sq yd is one bigha, not an acre), an acre given variously as 43,560, 43,200 and 43,569 sq ft, and a chatak of 320 square hath where its own katha figure requires 20. So we anchor on the acre and the four ratios that every source does agree on, derive the rest, and re-check the whole chain on every build. The consistent subset of the ministry’s table matches ours exactly — including “1 acre = 3 bigha 8 chatak”, the hectare at 7.47 bigha, and 3 kranti to the kora.