Indian women are being 'controlled' by forest drones

Researchers say wildlife cameras are used to harass them

- MAROOSHA MUZAFFAR

Wildlife camera traps and drones in one of India's best-known forest reserves are being misused to spy on women, researchers say.

Forest rangers in Jim Corbett National Park in the northern state of Uttarakhand intentionally fly drones over local women to intimidate them and prevent them from collecting natural resources to which they have a legal right, a research paper, published in the journal Environment and Planning F, warned.

“The patriarchal gaze of the society has extended into the forest because of these cameras,” Trishant Simlai, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Sociology and lead author of a report detailing these findings, told The Independent.

“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,” Mr Simlai said.

Officials from Corbett Tiger Reserve, part of the wider national park, called the allegations that forest officers were misusing wildlife cameras “absurd”. Nonetheless, they said an investigation had been set up to look into the study’s claims.

Researchers conducted a 14-month study interviewing 270 locals in the villages around Corbett Tiger Reserve and found that this intentional snooping of women by misusing technology was aimed at controlling and restricting women’s access to the forest. The women go there to collect firewood or to relieve themselves.

“These cameras, these drones, they’re taking pictures of people as well (besides the wildlife). So what happens to these pictures? India has one of the worst data protection laws. What is the accountability? What is the transparency here? What do they do with these pictures? They are not asking for consent of people,” Mr Simlai says.