Dehradun, Oct. 18 -- Uttarakhand's electorate has declined by 1,107,695 voters, or 13.40%, since the 2022 assembly elections, according to a report released by Dehradun-based social activists Anoop Nautiyal and Praveen Upreti at a press conference on Saturday. The report, titled "SIR & The Changing Uttarakhand Voter Landscape From 2022 to 2027 Vidhan Sabha Elections," examines changes in the state's electoral rolls, compares available figures across states and raises questions about the scale and distribution of voter reductions following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). "The electorate has fallen from 8,266,644 in the 2022 Assembly elections to approximately 7.15 million in the final electoral roll published on October 3," Nautiyal said. "Uttarakhand added approximately 1.88 million electors between 2012 and 2022, making the subsequent decline of 1,107,695 voters between 2022 and 2026 particularly surprising." He said that with 7,158,949 voters in 2026, Uttarakhand had returned to its 2012-2017 voter numbers, about 10 to 11 years behind. The state's estimated population was more than 1.25 crore. Given decadal growth rates of about 18-19% in normal circumstances, Uttarakhand should have had about 90 lakh voters instead of 71 lakh, he said. Based on a population of 1.25 crore and an electorate-to-population ratio of 70%, the state should have had about 88-89 lakh voters. The current ratio was about 58%, he said. Nautiyal said births outnumbered deaths in Uttarakhand, with birth and death rates of 16.6 and 6 per 1,000, respectively. This translated into an annual natural increase of 125,000 people. He added that rising traffic, housing, waste, water and electricity demand also pointed to population growth, which should have been reflected in the voter rolls. He said the reasons for the reduction - including deletions, deaths, migration, duplicate entries and other corrections - needed to be explained transparently by the ECI. A statewise comparison placed Uttarakhand's 13.40% decline among the largest percentage reductions in the country, compared with the electorate in the last election and after the SIR. The report estimated declines of approximately 11.4% in Uttar Pradesh, 8.79% in Tamil Nadu, 6.88% in West Bengal, 9.18% in Goa, 5.28% in Manipur and 0.7% in Punjab. Kerala recorded a decline of 1.12%, while Bihar and Assam recorded increases, he said. Nautiyal, however, cautioned that the figures should not be treated as a definitive like-for-like ranking, as the states had different reference years, publication dates and revision exercises. He called for a standardised comparison and an explanation of the sharp reduction. To be sure, not all of the decline of 11,07,695 electors happen during the SIR exercise. The elector count in Uttarakhand decreased by 305,882 between 2022 and the pre-SIR roll, which had 7,960,762 elecctors. The count of electors decreased by a further 801,813 in the SIR exercise, resulting in 7,158,949 electors at the end of the SIR exercise. Data from the ECI shows that most of the decline before the SIR exercise happend between the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the pre-SIR roll. The 2024 Lok Sabha election had 8,431,101 electors, 164,457 more than the 2022 assembly elections. The decline varied significantly across districts and constituencies. Dehradun recorded a reduction of approximately 303,000 electors, or 20.22%, the highest district-level percentage reduction identified in the report. Pauri Garhwal recorded a decline of 14.89%, Pithoragarh 13.61% and Tehri Garhwal 13.14%. Nautiyal also raised questions about transparency, accountability and public confidence in the electoral process. "Democracy is weakened when citizens are left uncertain about whether their names remain on the electoral rolls, or are forced to navigate a complex process to establish their right to vote," he said, adding that the ECI should proactively reach out to voters to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out. In 36 of Uttarakhand's 70 Assembly constituencies, the percentage reduction among women voters was higher than that among male voters. The pattern was evident in Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar, Tehri Garhwal, Uttarkashi and Almora districts. The report noted that Dwarahat was the only constituency in the 2022 Assembly elections where women voters outnumbered men. It called for constituency-wise and polling-station-wise gender-disaggregated data on male and female electors before and after the revision, along with the reasons recorded for deletions. Additional chief electoral officer Vijay Kumar Jogdande said everyone had been given a fair opportunity during the SIR and that a special campaign was also under way to enrol voters who had been left out. "If anyone has any concerns, they can submit them to us in writing. We will examine them and address them," he said....