Residents of Minneapolis-St. Paul, eat your hearts out!

For decades now, Minnesotans have spoken with pride of their “Twin Cities.” “Twin” refers to the fact that the two Mississippi River-straddling towns combine into a single large urban area. But a look at the tiny Indian village of Kodhini, in Kerala state, may leave you skeptical of any other place’s claim to the word “twin.”

The reason is that Kodhini boasts at least 250 sets of twins—and that’s out of only about 2,000 families! Some families even have multiple pairs.

The number is freakishly high, nearly six times the global average, and so far no one’s come up with a plausible explanation for it.

It’s not for lack of trying: Dr. Krishnan Sribiju has studied the town for a couple of years now, but every new statistic he unearths only makes the case more baffling.

For one thing, he says, the frequency of twin births seems to grow every year.

“Also,” Sribiju says, “twins are born usually to older, more mature women. In Kodinhi that is not the case, because marriage happens much younger here, at around 18 to 20 years old, and families begin very soon after.”

Twin sisters Fatima Kutty and Kuhni Pathutty are the town’s oldest, at the age of 65. Records suggest that their birth took place at the beginning of Kodhini’s unique trend.

The year 2008 saw an impressive 15 twin births out of only 300 healthy deliveries, and 2009’s total could be even higher. At least that should cut down on the number of hospital visits by pregnant women!

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By DanBing on 30-05-2009