Technologies like camera traps and drones have made monitoring wildlife in forests easier than ever. However, a new study has found that in a protected area in northern India, these devices also end up watching and harassing women who use those forest spaces. “These findings have caused quite a stir amongst the conservation community,” Chris Sandbrook, study co-author and conservation social scientist at the University of Cambridge, U.K., said in a statement. For the study, researcher Trishant Simlai from Cambridge interviewed women living in villages around Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) in northern India to understand how they use forest areas, and how technologies like camera traps and drones affect them. The women are permitted to venture into some fringe forest areas to gather nontimber forest products like firewood and grass. But the forest isn’t just a source of livelihood for them, Simlai found. It also acts as a refuge away from patriarchal surveillance, domestic abuse and societal norms. Moreover, it’s a space for privacy, allowing comradery with other women. However, the study found that forest department authorities sometimes deliberately fly drones over women to harass and scare them from collecting forest products, despite their having the right to do so. Similarly, camera traps, installed by male rangers in the core of the park, and in the buffer areas that the women frequent, make the women feel watched and fearful. Some women change their behavior as a result, talking or singing more softly, or taking unfamiliar routes to avoid the devices,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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