☙

chatta

In Nepal, a unit of volume used for fuelwood, a stack 5 feet × 5 ft × 20 ft.

This unit was brought to our attention by Martijn Schildkamp, who has been professionally involved in introducing building techniques that increase the earthquake-resistance of traditional Nepalese masonry. In numerous villages in the Kiski district he encountered the chitta as a unit of volume for stones, a pile about 4½ × 4½ × 15 feet. The analogy with the fuelwood unit makes the existence of a unit for stone extremely probable, but so far the only evidence is Mr. Schildkamp's records. If you live or work in Nepal and have encountered this meaning for chitta, please contact us.

sources

Fuelwood is measured by stack volume or chatta³⁰ whereas roundwood and sawnwood are measured in cubic feet.

30. A chatta is the equivalent of a stacked wood of dimensions 5 ft × 5 ft × 20 ft; the metric volume is 14.16 m³ inclusive of voids.

Qiang Ma and Jeremy S. Broadhead, editors.
EC-FAO Partnership Programme on Information and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management: Linking National and International Efforts in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
An Overview of Forest Product Statistics in South and Southeast Asia.
Bangkok: FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, December 2002.
Page 212.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/ac778e/AC778E14.htm#TopOfPage

In Nepal, fuelwood is measured in chatta, its dimensions are 20×5×5ft (equivalent to 14.15 m³) and weighs 10.47 ton on average.

Bhishma P. Subedi, Puspa L. Ghimire, Ann Koontz, Sudarshan C. Khanal, Prakash Katwal, Kabir R. Sthapit, and Shruti Khadka Mishra.
Private Sector Involvement and Investment in Nepal’s Forestry: Status, Prospects and Ways Forward.
Study Report, Multi Stakeholder Forestry Programme.
Babarmahal, Kathmandu: Services Support Unit, 2014.
Page 53, footnote.