NAINITAL: The Election Commission will arrange polling booths for Uttarakhand's Van Gujjars , a community that has never voted before and lives in the remote forests of Kumaon's Terai region.This time around, more than 1,600 Van Gujjar voters will, for the first time, be able to vote. The forest department has been running awareness campaigns to motivate them, officials say."We will open polling booths at forest rest houses and schools near the community's settlements," Parag Madhukar Dhakate , conservator of forests, western circle, says. A total of 450 Van Gujjar families live in the Terai, which includes the Terai East, West and Central forest divisions. Van Gujjars have lived here since the 1950s. A sizable chunk of them lives around the Rajaji and Corbett national parks and in the farflung parts of Haridwar, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Tehri and Pauri districts.In 2015, the government announced that the 75,000-strong community would be brought into the mainstream. The education and forest departments are working together to impart education to the tribe.

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