Misao Okawa, a Japanese woman, currently holds the record for world's oldest living person. (Credit: Reuters)
Misao Okawa of Japan, 115, could lose her current title of world's oldest human if claims of '141-year-old' Kashmiri man are recognised Reuters

Guinness World Records have begun to investigate a Kashmiri man who claims to be the world's oldest living person, at 141 years of age.

Feroz-ud-Din Mir, a resident of north Kashmir's Uri district, has presented a government-issued birth certificate as proof of his age. The certificate shows his date of birth as 10 March 1872.

If the birth certificate is proved genuine, it would mean his current wife Misra is 60 years younger than him, a report in the Mirror suggests.

A former fruit and nut trader and a father of 10, Mir has outlived four wives.

Mir can still walk and talk with a broken voice, though his eyesight has almost faded away. However, he can still recognise his relatives.

Mir lived for many years in what is now Pakistan, where he claims to have married his first wife in 1890.

"There were no boundaries between India and Pakistan at that time," Mir said.

"It was easy to go between the two. I used to work with a business family in Karachi who would buy nuts from me. I would take nuts from Kashmir which were very famous in Karachi," he added.

It was after the death of his first wife that Mir moved to India and married three more times.

"His experience of life is cruel. He used to tell me stories of an earthquake that happened in the late 1800s when he was on a trader trip to Karachi. He saved many lives. He was witness to some of the most significant events of the past century," Mir's fifth and current wife Misra said.

Mir has memories and speaks eloquently about an earthquake that destroyed the Sopore and Pattan area of north Kashmir in the 1880s. He also has vivid memories of Pakistani raids on Kashmir in the late 19th century.

Speaking of his childhood, Mir said: "There was no concept of electricity and other comforts. As life started becoming easy, people couldn't live easily with each other."

On 12 June, the man previously believed to be the world's oldest person, Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, died at the age of 116.

Since Kimura's death, another Japanese national, Misao Okawa, born on 5 March 1898, has been recognised as the world's oldest living person.

Pakistan Japan India Earthquake