The trap cameras, sound recorders, and drones increasingly used by science to monitor wildlife and habitats in protected natural areas are being used to spy on women.
A group of researchers from Cambridge has just made this discovery in a forest in northern India, where village men, and even the local government, are "misusing and deliberately" using these technologies to monitor women without their consent.
Cambridge researcher Dr. Trishant Simlai spent 14 months interviewing 270 locals living around the Corbett Tiger Reserve, a national park in northern India. The results of his research, just published in the journal Environment and Planning F, reveal how park rangers deliberately fly drones over women.
A photograph of a woman relieving herself in the forest was captured by a trap camera supposedly dedicated to monitoring wildlife, and then circulated in Facebook and WhatsApp groups.
The study reveals a scenario of intimidation and deliberate surveillance, but researchers claim that it is not only happening in India but in many other places, even in national parks in the United Kingdom, where people are being recorded without their knowledge using wildlife surveillance devices.
"No one could have imagined that trap cameras installed in Indian forests to monitor mammals would have such a negative impact on the mental health of women," notes Dr. Trishant Simlai, a researcher at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the report.
"These findings have caused a stir in the conservation community. It is very common for projects to use these technologies to monitor wildlife, but this highlights that we must ensure they are not causing unintended harm," said Professor Chris Sandbrook, director of the Conservation Leadership Program at the University of Cambridge, who also participated in the report.
"Surveillance technologies that are supposed to track animals can easily be used to monitor people, invading their privacy and altering their behavior," Sandbrook concludes.
Women visit this forest in India every day to collect various non-timber forest products such as firewood, herbs, or fruits, these activities are not only an essential part of the family economy but also of their own identity. The forest represents a fundamental space for the socialization of these women, and sometimes plays an essential role in escaping domestic violence they endure or in momentarily forgetting their problems.
The women, who used to seek refuge in the forest away from their male-dominated villages, told Simlai that they feel watched and inhibited by the trap cameras, so they speak and sing much softer. This increases the possibility of unexpected encounters with potentially dangerous wild animals, such as elephants and tigers. A woman he interviewed died later in a tiger attack.
"Simlai's work is very relevant because it highlights that the ethical dilemmas and risks arising from the increasing adoption of digital technologies to strengthen biological conservation have a very important gender dimension, to the point of generating various forms of violence against women. We can also think that this situation is applicable to many other geographical contexts," says Jaime Paneque-Gálvez, a senior researcher at the Center for Research in Environmental Geography at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in statements to the Science Media Centre.