Mohamudpur Umri,India highest rate of Identical twins anywhere in the world!!

Highest identical twins birth rate,Mohammadpur Umri, Uttar Pradesh,India.week.manoramaonline.com

 Mohammadpur Umri a small village near Allahabad city in Uttar Pradesh State, India has drawn the attention of geneticists  and biologists world over because here the identical twins birth rate is 300 times that of national average and is considered one of the highest in the world.

Located very close to Air Force base, this small village boasts of 33 pairs of twins out of a total population of 600. As for study of identical twins, the incidence of two pairs for a population of 600 is considered highest in the world, but here 33 pairs is too big a figure. Latest figures point out 120 twins are living in this village of 12,000 people. Perhaps highest in the world.

identical twins,Mohammadpur Umri, Uttar Pradesh,India.musetheplace.com

With twins in every fifth home, Umri has the highest proportion of Mono zygotic (Identical) twins anywhere in the world and his has attracted the attention of  growing number of researchers, media and tourists. Consequently  otherwise  courteous and jovial villagers  grow increasingly impatient with visitors whose frequent intrusions disturb their quiet and tension free life, not to speak of their privacy..

There are numerous hilarious instances in the village as to to the identity of  right twins, The shop keepers and school teachers have difficulty with  these lookalikes, the former do not know which twins make the order for candies and owe them money and the latter end up punishing the wrong twins for incomplete home work. 

Identical twins,Mohammadpur Umri, Uttar Pradesh,India.www.waytoindia.com

As reported some time back  in this blog, Kodhini village in Mallapuram district of Kerala, south India  which has one of highest twins birth rate in the world, and all of them belong to Muslim community. Here in Mohamadpur Umri too almost the entire population is Muslim.
 Here the twin phenomenon is not limited to humans, animals too have identical twins!! In Umri lots of hens  lay eggs with double yolks and  there are a few  twins  of cows and buffaloes. 

Researchers are of the opinion that inheritance of  gene for ‘hyper-ovulation’- tendency of conceiving twins could be a factor. Instead of one egg  that is normally produced and is ready for fertilization, ''hyper-ovulation'' occurs when more than one egg is released by a woman during her monthly menstrual cycle that may produce fraternal twins or triplets. This phenomenon of 'hyper-ovulation is hereditary.

Here unlike Kodhini village in Kerala, the villagers are poor. As resident doctors are not posted here,
the rate of twin births is increasing so is mortality rate. Here the Hindus who form just 5% of the population do report twin births.

What trigers the hyper ovulation in women both here and  Kodhini, Kerala is a moot question to be answered. That the incidences of twinning phenomenon both in Kodhini, Kerala  and Umri,Uttar Pradesh (separated by more than 1000 kms) in India which has one of the lowest  twinning rates in the world is an enigma to be solved by the medical fraternity. 
Ref:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.littleindia.com/india/7322-twin-capital-of-the-world.html