Allahabad, April 16 (ANI): The village of Mohammedpur Umri in Uttar Pradesh has an extraordinary record to its credit-a large number of identical twins born in one location.
A father of twin sons, Mohammad Mustafa spoke about the unique phenomenon.
He said: "In the last 25 to 30 years, a large number of twins have been born in this village. At least 108 twins can be found right now in this village. There are also many cows in this village that have given birth to twin calves."
Village elders said they have over 108 identical twins out of a total population of around 600.
This is believed to be much higher than anywhere else in the world.
Even though the road leading to the village is muddy and pot-holed, locals still revel in their proud record and narrate incidents of mistaken identities to bemused visitors.
Adjacent villages and hamlets with similar population and geography have not seen a similar twin boom.
Locals revealed that many genetic researchers from across the world have come to the village in the hope of finding the reason behind this unique phenomenon.
Mohammad Hasan said: "All the twins in this village are a result of natural birth. There are many villages alongside this one, but they don't have twins in them, then why just in Umri do we find so many twins? Many experts have come to this village; some even came from Hyderabad, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister. They took samples of the soil in the village, water in the village and our blood samples to research. But they are yet to find an answer."
Despite the lack of basic facilities and the moderate living conditions, there is rarely a dull day in the village of Umri as someone always becomes a victim of a twin prank.
Tales of Shakespeare's comedy of errors often find a real narrative in the village where locals narrate stories of a twin brother taking a loan from the local moneylender and then refusing to pay it back by claiming that the other twin had taken the loan.
Wives in the village have asked their husbands to dress in a particular manner so that they can differentiate them from their twin brother.
In a bizarre incident, a set of twin brothers even switched places inside prison. They would wear identical dresses and the other would just walk out of the police station.
As scientists try to find the reason for the large numbers of twins in the village, the parents are busy trying to tell their children apart. It doesn't help that many of the twins have similar names and often wear similar clothes. (ANI)
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