“Wildlife” cameras and drones that harass women: the new form of abuse affecting India

The most alarming example was the dissemination on social networks by some forestry agents of images of a woman with autism relieving herself in the forest.

For the women of the villages in the area, this forest represents a space of “freedom and expression”apart from men in this “very conservative and patriarchal society,” Simlai explains to AFP. There they can sing, talk about taboo issues such as sexuality or drink alcohol and smoke while collecting herbs and firewood for their fireplaces.

But the installation of cameras and recorders or the deployment of drones to follow and protect the tigers, elephants and other animals that live in the area have had a “disproportionate impact” on these women, says this researcher.

Drones overhead

Sometimes women must seek refuge because drones are deliberately dropped over their headsaccording to this study published in the journal Environment and Planning F.

The investigation also includes the case told by a forest guard who caught a couple in the middle of a “romance” thanks to one of the installed cameras and “immediately alerted the police”.

A woman interviewed for the study explains that these devices inhibit their behaviors “for fear of being photographed or recorded at a bad time.”

The study warns that the misuse of this technology can even become counterproductive to the theoretical objective of controlling threatened wildlife.

After the controversy over the dissemination of the images of the autistic woman, several men from their village decided to take the law into their own hands and broke and set fire to all the cameras they could find, explains one of them.

Put your life at risk to avoid being spied on

To avoid these cameras, the women go deeper into the forest, which has one of the densest populations of tigers in the worldputting himself in danger. They also sing less to avoid warning felines of their presence.

One of them, who explained that her fear of cameras made her venture to remote areas of the forest, died from a tiger attack this yearsays Simlai.

However, on occasion, these systems have also benefited women. The report explains the case of one of them that “Every time her husband hit her, she ran until she was in front of the camera so it wouldn’t follow her”.

Although these environmental monitoring techniques have a positive effect on wildlife conservation, Simlai considers it necessary to inform and involve local communities in their use.

Regulation for technology in the environment

Rosaleen Duffy, an ecology specialist at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, explains that “unfortunately” she is not surprised by the content of the report. “What surprises me is that environmentalists think that technology can be introduced into a social, political and economic vacuum,” he tells AFP.

For this reason, it demands clear rules about what can and cannot be done with these tools “and also clear consequences.” for those who use them inappropriately».