An election booth inside a forest in India – for just one voter

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

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.