In a strange and fascinating incident, a cow gave birth to a two-headed, three-eyed calf in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district. The birth took place in Tikri village. Considering it a miracle, locals began to flock to the scene, and soon, a large crowd had formed to worship the cow. The newborn has two noses, three eyes, and two ears in toto.
A viral video caught villagers bowing in front of the bovine being with hands clasped in prayer, and leaving loose change in front of the creature as an offering. The video features a man helping the calf lift up its head, indicating the health risks and maladaptation it already suffers from since it cannot get up on its own.
Many consider such an extraordinary mutation to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, but the subcontinent is no stranger to bi-brained bovines. In a very interesting trend, there has been a documented case of such a calf birth every year since 2020, somewhere or other in the subcontinent.
The first was a black two-headed calf born in Rajasthan’s Pura Sikrauda village in the Dholpur district in September 2021.
This calf, born with two necks, four eyes, and four ears. At the time, the same phenomenon of the newborn becoming a local attraction occurred, and a crowd gathered to worship the creature. The cow reportedly needed no additional help to birth the calf and was in perfect health.
In January 2022, a similar brown two-headed, four-eyed, four-eared calf was born in Tripura’s Gomati district. This case was more par for the course as far as mutations go, videos that emerged of the creature depicted it unable to even stand without support, and it needed to be manually fed with a bottle.
The next instance of a multi-headed heifer came in June 2023 from Uttar Pradesh’s Jalalpur. With three eyes and two noses, this mutational mystery interestingly possessed only one conjoined mouth. Locals, again, began to worship the creature; this time, people from nearby districts also joined in to witness the miracle.
This calf could stand on its own two feet and suckle from its mother unassisted. The newborn was given a clean bill of health.
Karnataka was graced with a two-headed heifer of its own in Kinnigoli in Mangaluru in September 2024. This unfortunate calf was born with two heads, two noses, two ears, two functional eyes, and two non – non-functional eyes. The weight of its head was too much for the creature to lift itself up on its own – as a result, it had to be fed with a bottle rather than suckling from its mother.
The most recent mutation came in January this year, from Tripura again, this time from Saraspur in the North Tripura district. With two noses, two ears, two mouths, and four eyes, the calf was reportedly stable healthwise. Curious locals rushed to the spot to see the creature, considering it an instance of divine intervention.
These calves all share the same medical condition – polycephaly. Originally taken from Greek, polycephaly translates to “many heads”. Bovines afflicted with the condition normally live just a few short weeks, with rare cases living to see a few months.
The longest a two-headed cow has looked at the world has been 17 months. The majority of the mutation becomes miracles, fleeting moments of life are spent being gawked at and prayed to – a uniquely Indian reaction to a uniquely Indian phenomenon.
| Edited by Syeda Faiza Kirmani | 
