A two-headed calf has stunned locals in an Indian village after it was born to one of the cows of a milkman in Tirukoilur in Tamil Nadu, southern India.

The newborn calf was born with two faces that appear to be attached on a single skull.

Although the calf has the same body, it has two heads with a total of four eyes, but only a single pair of earlobes.

The owner of the calf and a milk trader Kathiruval (who uses a single name only) said: "We were stunned when the calf was born. None of my cows has ever given birth to a two-headed calf ever.”

"Nobody in the village including the vets believed that the calf would survive even for few hours but the animal has defied the odds to survive for over a month."

People are frequently flocking to the milkman’s house every day to see the "miraculous" calf.

A local villager named Santosh Pillai, said: "We all were surprised when we saw the two-headed calf. It is a God’s miracle."

While the vet said there is nothing such as miracle, the vet explained that the phenomenon of being born with more than one head is called Polycephaly, and is believed to occur when a single embryo begins to split into twins but stops due to some reasons and the developed portion of the bodies continue to remain attached.

Each head of a Polycephalic animal has its individual brain, which controls the organs and limbs. Although the specific structure of the connections varies between each case, animals with such conditions are believed to have survived not more than a few months.