Home WebMail
| Calgary -1.1°C
Regions Advertise Login Contact
Action News Action News
  • World
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Africa
    • Americas
  • Canada
  • US
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Breaking News
  • Latest Updates
  • Featured
  • Live
  • Live Now
  • Alaves vs Real Madrid: La Liga – team news, start time, lineups
  • Hungarian protesters demand PM Viktor Orban quits over child abuse scandals
  • Bangladesh says six peacekeepers killed in attack on UN base in Abyei
  • Could violence in the DRC become a regional conflict?
  • Salah assists Ekitike’s second as Liverpool beat Brighton in EPL
  • Israel claims to have killed senior Hamas commander, Raed Saad, in Gaza
  • Belarus frees 123 prisoners including Ales Bialiatski as US lifts sanctions
  • RSF drone strike kills at least three in central Sudan, injures several
  • Why the huge bidding war over Warner Bros?
  • ISIL kills two US soldiers, interpreter in Syria’s Palmyra, Pentagon says
  • Messi’s tour of India begins with fans throwing bottles, stadium vandalised
  • Messi backlash in India after fans pay up to $150 for 20-minute visit
  • Thai-Cambodia fighting continues despite US ceasefire claim
  • It is not too late for the world to redeem itself on Gaza
  • Russian attacks cut power for thousands in Ukraine as peace talks press on
  • Trump strips legal protections from Ethiopian refugees in latest crackdown
  • Liverpool vs Brighton 2-0: Premier League – as it happened
  • Residents emerge in DR Congo’s tense Uvira after M23 rebel takeover
  • Inside the world of Catholic exorcisms in the Philippines
  • Desperate children in Gaza try to keep floodwater out of tents
  • Virtual reality offers escape to Gaza children wounded in Israel’s war
  • Libya reopens National Museum in Tripoli after years of closure
  • Colombia’s ELN rebels prepare for battle amid Trump ‘intervention’ threat
  • North Korea’s Kim bestows ‘hero’ titles on soldiers killed in Ukraine war
  • Myanmar military says armed groups used hospital it bombed, killing dozens
  • Alaves vs Real Madrid: La Liga – team news, start time, lineups
  • Hungarian protesters demand PM Viktor Orban quits over child abuse scandals
  • Bangladesh says six peacekeepers killed in attack on UN base in Abyei
  • Could violence in the DRC become a regional conflict?
  • Salah assists Ekitike’s second as Liverpool beat Brighton in EPL
  • Israel claims to have killed senior Hamas commander, Raed Saad, in Gaza
  • Belarus frees 123 prisoners including Ales Bialiatski as US lifts sanctions
  • RSF drone strike kills at least three in central Sudan, injures several
  • Why the huge bidding war over Warner Bros?
  • ISIL kills two US soldiers, interpreter in Syria’s Palmyra, Pentagon says
  • Messi’s tour of India begins with fans throwing bottles, stadium vandalised
  • Messi backlash in India after fans pay up to $150 for 20-minute visit
  • Thai-Cambodia fighting continues despite US ceasefire claim
  • It is not too late for the world to redeem itself on Gaza
  • Russian attacks cut power for thousands in Ukraine as peace talks press on
  • Trump strips legal protections from Ethiopian refugees in latest crackdown
  • Liverpool vs Brighton 2-0: Premier League – as it happened
  • Residents emerge in DR Congo’s tense Uvira after M23 rebel takeover
  • Inside the world of Catholic exorcisms in the Philippines
  • Desperate children in Gaza try to keep floodwater out of tents
  • Virtual reality offers escape to Gaza children wounded in Israel’s war
  • Libya reopens National Museum in Tripoli after years of closure
  • Colombia’s ELN rebels prepare for battle amid Trump ‘intervention’ threat
  • North Korea’s Kim bestows ‘hero’ titles on soldiers killed in Ukraine war
  • Myanmar military says armed groups used hospital it bombed, killing dozens
Photos: Lone Indian voter casts ballot in special forest booth

Photos: Lone Indian voter casts ballot in special forest booth

Polling officers in Gujarat make a two-day trip by bus on bumpy roads to ensure a Hindu monk could vote.

By Al Jazeera Published 2024-05-08 00:55 Updated 2024-05-08 01:01 2 min read Source: Al Jazeera
Explained Human Rights Science & Technology India Election 2024

Deep inside a protected Indian forest, a Hindu monk casts his ballot, ensuring a 100 percent turnout at the polling station where he is the sole registered voter.

India is in the midst of the largest democratic exercise in human history and the country pledges to reach every voter, no matter where they live.

That required polling officials to traverse through the Gir forest in Gujarat state, the last remaining natural habitat of the endangered Asiatic lion, to set up a voting booth on Tuesday in Banej, where Mahant Haridas Udaseen is the sole resident.

Nearly 969 million people are eligible to vote this year, and electoral laws demand that each voter is no more than 2km (1.2 miles) away from a polling booth.

For polling officers in Gujarat, that meant a two-day trip, including a long and bumpy journey by bus on unpaved forest roads, to ensure the monk could participate.

Udaseen, clad in a saffron robe and his face smeared with sandalwood, arrived at the booth before lunch. But Election Commission rules mean the booth must stay operational until the evening, even without another human for miles around.

The law also requires each polling booth to be helmed by at least six polling staff and two police officers.

Udaseen is the custodian of a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva, sitting deep in the Gir forest next to a stream infested with crocodiles, moving there in 2019 after the death of his predecessor.

More than half a million people visit the forest each year, riding in open-top jeeps as they try to spot prowling leopards, jackals and hyenas.

But the main attraction is the Asiatic lion, of which there are only about 700.

Share this page

  • 𝕏 X/Twitter
  • 🔗 LinkedIn
  • 📘 Facebook
  • 💬 WhatsApp
  • ✉️ Email
Action News logo

Action News

A division of WestNet Continental Broadcasting

About

Part of WestNet N.A.

Action.News

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Action News Code of Ethics

Connect

  • Facebook.com/ActionNews
  • YouTube.com/@actionnew
  • Twitch.com/ActionNews
  • WhatsApp
  • Contact the Newsroom

© 2025 Action News™. All Rights Reserved.

Action News is a trademark of WestNet Continental Broadcasting. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

🔴 LIVE
Action News Live ✖
🔊 Click to unmute