In 2017, one of the camera traps installed by the Tiger Project in northern India captured the image of a half-naked woman urinating in the forest. Young people who were part of the temporary forest management staff accessed the photograph and circulated it on local social media groups, sparking a wave of protests.
Residents of the village of the woman – a young woman with autism who came from a marginalized caste group – destroyed camera traps in the adjacent forest areas and threatened to burn down the forest station. The case highlighted caste-based discrimination, but it is also an example of how nature monitoring technology – from remotely operated cameras to sound recorders and drones – is being used to exert social control over women, spy on them and harass them.
It is the conclusion reached by the researcher Trishant Simlai and his team at the University of Cambridge in a report published this Monday in the journal Environment and Planning Ffor which they have interviewed 270 people who live around the Jim Corbett National Parkincluding many women from nearby villages. “These cameras are mainly used for wildlife, but in the field operators use them in many ways,” he explains to elDiario.es. “And this is having a disproportionate impact on women.”
Intimidation and surveillance
The study provides numerous examples of how these new technologies are being used to intimidate local women, especially those from the humblest social background, and exert power over them, as they monitor their movements. “When they see camera traps, they feel inhibited because they don’t know who is watching or listening to them, and as a result they behave differently,” says Simlai.
When they see camera traps, they feel inhibited because they don’t know who is watching or listening to them, and as a result they behave differently.
Trishant Simlai
— Researcher at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study
In the entire Corbett Tiger Reserve there are between 300 and 400 cameras deployed in a territory of about 900 km², reveals the researcher. “Many times these cameras are also placed in areas that are not exactly the national park. There are multiple use areas where there are tigers and elephants, but there are also people,” he explains. A good part of the cameras remain in the forests that the women visit daily to collect firewood and herbs or share experiences through traditional songs.
“We don’t know who is watching us from these cameras,” says one of the residents interviewed. “Are you taking a photo? Or recording a video? Can you hear us?” Women in this area of India tie their dresses above the knees to improve ease of movement while harvesting forest products, but are inhibited by the presence of cameras. “We cannot walk in front of the cameras or sit in the area with our dresses above our knees, we are afraid of being photographed or recorded incorrectly,” says one of them.
The protective songs
The new paper by Simlai and her colleagues also reveals that national park rangers deliberately fly drones over women to scare them out of the forest from collecting natural resources, even though it is their legal right to do so. This surveillance also endangers them by forcing their silence and interrupting a long tradition of entering the forest singing loudly to scare away tigers and elephants.
“The presence of camera traps not only censored conversations between women, but is also preventing them from singing songs and nyaulis out loud,” the authors write. “Women consciously lowered the volume of their singing or avoided singing altogether.” Additionally, this pressure is forcing them to move into unfamiliar, deeper areas of the forest, increasing the likelihood of encountering large wild animals.
Since they put cameras in this area we are forced to go deeper into the forest and the risk of encountering elephants increases.
Testimony of a resident in Jim Corbett National Park
“There is a baaghin (tigress) with cubs in this part of our forest, if we do not sing or speak loudly there is the possibility that she will be surprised and attack us like any protective animal would do,” says one of the interviewees. “Since they put cameras in this area, we are forced to go deeper into the forest, where the vegetation is too dense, this increases the risk of encountering elephants,” says another.
Control of activities
One of the most disturbing aspects is how a tool designed to monitor animals has become an instrument of control by men over their own women. Interviews reveal that men frequently express disapproval of women venturing into the forest. “They leave the children unattended for hours together and go into the woods to have fun; They need to spend more time at home,” says one of the interviewees.
They leave the children unattended for hours together and go into the woods to have fun; “They need to spend more time at home,” says one of the men interviewed.
“Conversations with lower-level forest authorities indicated that the placement of camera traps in certain forest spaces beyond the park’s jurisdiction is frequently dictated by local men residing in outlying villages,” the researchers write. “It was also revealed that certain men regularly expressed interest in viewing camera trap footage of their spouses, seeking confirmation as to whether their wives were actually entering the forest or engaging in other activities.”
The perverse use of these means reaches such an extreme that on one occasion, according to local reports, a camera trap captured an image of a couple having sex in the forest and they were reported to the police. But the best example of the situation was the resolution of the case of the young woman whose urinating photo was distributed on social networks, in the town of Sundarkhal.
“The photo of that woman circulated in these WhatsApp and Facebook groups, but that was not done by people from the government,” explains Simlai. “It was done by lower level authorities like forest guards and people working on contract with the forest department. And the matter did not continue judicially because they discovered that people from within the town were also involved, so it remained silent.”
Business vs. rights
The situation also reveals the marginalization of villages whose castes are considered inferior, who are the ones who suffer the effects of this surveillance the most. “The ethnic groups that live in this region are the Van Gujjarsthe Buhas and the Rai Sikhs”Sumlai describes. “All these communities were classified as ‘criminal tribes’ by the British, so the taboo against them still exists. The other communities are a mix of caste groups lower and superiors of ‘pahadis’.” “What are they trying to monitor by flying the drone where the women of our town go to relieve themselves?” one of the residents complained. “Would they dare to do the same in upper caste villages?”
One of the reasons why forest authorities often discourage women from using forest spaces and scare them away with drones is that they are also frequented by organized safaris. “Tourists do not like to see groups of women with their heads loaded with firewood and grass emerging from the vegetation when they have been sold a complete natural experience,” says one of the forestry agents in interviews.
“Unfortunately, none of this is surprising, because it fits perfectly with the increasing militarization of tiger conservation in India, which blames and attacks local indigenous and other forest-dwelling peoples,” he says. Sophie Griga researcher with Survival International, who was not involved in the study. “They put the needs of tourists above those of the local people who depend on the forest and who have lived next to or within it and protected it for generations.”
The power imbalance of rangers means that they often abuse indigenous women, we have seen many cases around the world
Sophie Grig
— Survival International Researcher
For Grig, this is another example of the use of camera traps causing great pressure and concern among indigenous people, who feel that they know this is a major intrusion into their lives. “And unfortunately women tend to be the most vulnerable,” she emphasizes. “The power imbalance of rangers means they often abuse indigenous women, we have seen many cases around the world of women being sexually abused.”
Cristina Sánchez Carreteroanthropologist at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit-CSIC), believes that the study highlights the need to address conservation with an intersectional gender perspective. “There is a triple invisibility: of the population, of women and of power inequalities, in this case of castes,” he emphasizes. On the other hand, remember, surveillance through cameras and drones has been analyzed from different disciplines, such as sociology and anthropology, and produces structural violence. “In this case, a patriarchal vision is promoted and violence is activated precisely by not taking into account those needs linked to daily life.”
Jose Antonio Cortesprofessor at the Faculty of Sociology at the Universidade da Coruña, recalls that conservation policies have used surveillance in a standardized way since practically their birth. “Specifically, the case of Project Tiger is usually studied in textbooks as one of those examples of extreme conservation policy based in many cases on the expulsion of the population to make room for untouched nature,” he points out. “It is true that camera traps are used to monitor animals, but it is no coincidence that they end up entering the field of monitoring people. Because in the end conservation policies are based a lot on that, on monitoring people in their relationship with the environment.”
It is true that camera traps are used to monitor animals, but it is no coincidence that they end up entering the field of surveillance of people.
Jose Antonio Cortes
— Professor of the Faculty of Sociology of the Universidade da Coruña
In Cortés’ opinion, the great value of this work is applying the gender dimension to conservation policies, a very masculinized area in which women are practically absent. “The moral that can be drawn from this article is that those tools that have been put there to monitor animals have ended up being exploited by certain male subjects to exercise violence and domination over low-caste women,” he summarizes. “What is surprising is that there is someone naive enough to think that this was not going to happen.”
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