A camera trap. (image/wildlifesos.org)
Nainital, Uttarakhand: The forest department of Uttarakhand started an investigation after Cambridge University researchers found that cameras deployed for tracking animals at Jim Corbett Forest are spying on women. Cameras and drones that were originally planted in Corbett National Park for conservation activities like monitoring animals are being deliberately misused by local government officials and men to surveil women living in villages and settlements near the forest without consent, found the study.
Titled Gendered Forests: Digital Surveillance Technologies for Conservation and Gender-environment Relationships, the study claimed that forest rangers intentionally flew drones over local women to scare them and prevent them from collecting natural resources, despite their legal entitlement to do so.
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Published in the journal Environment and Planning F by Trishant Simlai and Chris Sandbrook, the study documents many incidents of privacy violations, including one in which an image of a semi-nude woman relieving herself was “inadvertently” captured by a camera trap.
For the study, a total of 270 residents around the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand, including women, were interviewed over 14 months by researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK.
“We argue that the use of digital technologies for forest governance, such as camera traps and drones, tends to transform these forests into masculinised spaces that extend the patriarchal gaze of society into the forest,” the authors wrote.
Simlai reported that the women, who had previously found sanctuary in the forest away from the male-dominated villages, told him they felt watched and inhibited by camera traps, causing them to talk and sing much more quietly. He said this increases the chances of surprise encounters with potentially dangerous animals, like elephants and tigers.
The national park is known to provide respite to women, who, in addition to gathering firewood, spend long hours there to escape difficult situations at home, such as violence and alcoholism. They often share their stories and express themselves through traditional songs, said the researchers.
The women told Simlai that new surveillance technologies, deployed under the guise of wildlife monitoring projects, were being used to intimidate and exert power over them by monitoring them as well.
“A photograph of a woman going to the toilet in the forest, captured on a camera trap supposedly for wildlife monitoring, was circulated on local Facebook and WhatsApp groups as a means of deliberate harassment,” said Simlai.
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Simlai discovered that local women form strong bonds while working together in the forest, singing while collecting firewood to deter attacks by elephants and tigers.
When women see camera traps, they feel inhibited because they don’t know who’s watching or listening to them, resulting in them behaving differently, often becoming much quieter, which puts them in danger, he added.
One woman he interviewed has since been killed in a tiger attack, Simlai said. “Nobody could have realised that camera traps put in the Indian forest to monitor mammals actually have a profoundly negative impact on the mental health of local women who use these spaces,” Simlai said.
“There is a ‘baaghin’ (tigress) with cubs in this part of our forest. If we don’t sing or talk loudly, there is a chance of her being surprised and attacking us,” said one woman during one of the interviews.
Simlai added that the forest is a very gendered space “where very complex bunch of social interactions happen between women. But camera traps, which are deployed throughout Uttarakhand, not just in CTR, are making women regulate their behaviour in terms of censoring conversations, singing less, or collecting less firewood or timber or forest produce that is around.”
He added that the absence of consent in deploying such cameras is also a glaring issue that the government should address.
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Chris Sandbrook, who is a conservation social scientist and professor of conservation and society at the University of Cambridge, said, “These findings have caused quite a stir in the conservation community. It’s very common for projects to use these technologies to monitor wildlife, but this highlights the need to ensure they’re not causing unintended harm.”
Surveillance technologies that are supposed to track animals can easily be instead used to watch people invading their privacy and altering the way they behave, Sandbrook added. The researchers stressed that for effective conservation strategies, it is vital to understand the varied ways in which local women use forests, particularly in northern India, where a woman’s identity is closely tied to their daily activities and social roles within the forest.
