In Ripley’s Believe it or Not, an unreasonable phenomenon of an Indian village stands out, stunning viewers with its mystery. This small village in Kerala has a birth rate of twins so high that “it borders on impossible.”
‘Welcome to God’s own Twins Village,’ reads a sign outside Kodinhi, a village housing 2,000 families in Kerala. The village, just 150 kilometres from Kochi, boasts of having a population of around 400 pairs of twins.
A similar phenomenon has been observed in the small Sirkazhi town in Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam district. In 2019, there were around 150 pairs of playful school-aged twins who often enjoyed confusing their teachers.
A team of researchers from different institutions, including the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), the University of London, and Germany, visited the hamlet of Kodinhi to study this phenomenon. As part of their investigation, the researchers collected saliva and hair samples.
Artificial insemination is one of the causes of the rise in the frequency of twin births across the globe; however, this is not the case in these towns. Researchers have performed varied DNA tests to discover answers to the village’s twins. Twins are seen at a rate of 9 per 1,000 births throughout India, but Kodinhi is an outlier, with a rate of 45 per 1,000 births—the highest in the world.
Some experts believe that, besides heredity, there could be a specific ingredient in the village’s air or water. Other reasons include the locals’ nutrition. While there are many theories, there is no scientific evidence to prove them; much of it is based on conjecture.
Two curious twin sisters discovered that there were eight pairs of twins in their class and twenty-four pairs of twins in their school; this became the starting point for their discovery. As word spread, they discovered that Kodinhi had almost 280 pairs of twins.
Given the high expenses of rearing twins and the physically difficult task of child-bearing for the mother, the town formed the Twins and Kin Association (TAKA). It registers and assists Kodinhi’s twins and their families. TAKA can play a major role in educating and assisting people. The people of Kodinhi, now known as the “twin town,” are proud of their twin population and call it a blessing.
Five hundred kilometres from Kohdinhi is Sirkazhi, where the number of twins is constantly growing. The little town, too, has been submerged in mystery, with no one truly understanding the reason behind such a high birth rate of twins, but the residents claim to have grown accustomed to it.
The settlement has five schools, each with at least 20 pairs of twins. Teachers often find it challenging to tell the students apart; however, everyone in the classroom agrees that twins are fun to be around.
They make classes more interesting by answering for one another, exchanging notebooks, and so on. Each class has at least one pair, and their presence encourages us to teach better,” said an economics teacher in an interview with Hindu.
The playful twins of Sirkazhi make every day interesting. They share a strong bond; if something happens to one, the other feels it, too. They always back each other up in all situations.
“When we were in primary classes, teachers used to make us sit in different sections to identify us correctly. However, we fussed and threw tantrums till we were allowed to sit together. Now, we play pranks on everyone,” says Priyanka’s sister, Prithyanka. The pair even baffled people around them by scoring identical marks in class 10 board exams even after being seated in different examination halls. They call it a “twin connection.”
Like Kodinhi, the town has attracted increasing attention from physicians and scientists, but without any successful explanation. Both towns have reported noticing that twin deliveries began around three generations ago.
Dr. Krishnan Sribiju, a Kerala-based doctor interested in researching the science of twin delivery, has attempted to unravel the riddle of the high frequency of twin births in Kodinhi. According to him, if the mystery of twin birth is solved, it can help people who struggle to have children.
Dr. Sribiju explains that twins are often born to older, more mature mothers. That is not the case in Kodinhi since marriage occurs at a considerably younger age, approximately 18–20 years old, and families begin shortly after.
Furthermore, women who are less than 5 feet and 3 inches tall are more likely to give birth to twins. Women in Kodinhi, on the other hand, have an average height of 5 feet. “Sometimes, when we are feeling naughty, we try and swap classes to confuse people,” says Shahala and her sister Shahana.
Like the twins of Sirkazhi, the twins of Kodinhi make schools and communities lively; teachers often mix the children, and the pairs partner up to prank friends and family.
“What is fascinating is the increasing numbers of twins with each passing year, so much so that I feel in the past 10 years the number of twins in Kodinhi has doubled,” claims Dr Sribiju.
These are not the first towns in the world to have a twin enigma. Hung Loc Commune in Vietnam, Igbo-Ora in Nigeria, and Candido Godoi in Brazil also witnessed the phenomenon. Some families in Igbo-Ora, popularly known as the “Twin Capital of the World,” have three or more pairs of twins.
According to a BBC story, seeing doubles is the norm in Candido Godoi. A pair of twins from the area said not having a twin was virtually unheard of in this town.
With researchers and scientists perplexed over the mystery of twin connection, these playful kids give their respective towns a lively environment. The families in both towns feel blessed to have twins and find it “the most joyful thing” in their lives.
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