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Monday, 31 October 2011

Is 160 enough? One Indian man's family





Mizoram, India (CNN) -- The world's population hits 7 billion this week, but Ziona, the patriarch of what may be the biggest family in the world, is not bothered.
"I don't care about overpopulation in India ... I believe God has chosen us to be like this (have big families). Those who are born into this family don't want to leave this tradition so we just keep growing and growing," he says with a smile.
Ziona, who only goes by his first name, has 39 wives, 86 children and 35 grandchildren.
Ziona's father, Chana, founded the Christian sect in Baktwang village that promotes polygamy as God's will. "I never wanted to get married but that's the path God has chosen for me," he says. "It's not my wish to keep marrying again and again."
All 160 family members live in a four-storey mansion perched on top of a remote village in the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram.
The state, neighboring Myanmar and Bangladesh, has one million residents, one of the lowest population densities in this country of 1.2 billion. Despite its natural beauty, special permits are required to enter the state, making tourism virtually non-existent.


©Fredy Njeje

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