Misuse of wildlife cameras linked to deadly tiger attack

Researchers at Cambridge University have unveiled how wildlife cameras are used to intimidate and spy on women, sometimes with tragic consequences.

Wildlife cameras, along with other gadgets like sound recorders and drones, can reveal the secret lives of animals without scaring them away. This sounds good – until it gets creepy.

Local women at the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Northern India have been afraid to enter the forest since the introduction of wildlife cameras. But why?

Well, the problem is not so much the cameras themselves, but the male national park rangers watching them through the lens.

The startling find came after researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Sociology conducted interviews with 270 locals living around the reserve. The stories they heard revealed the scary reality that local men are using wildlife cameras to spy on and intimidate local women.

Examples of the abuse shared by victims included things like photographing women going to the toilet in the forest and then circulating the images on local Facebook and WhatsApp groups, and purposely flying drones over women's heads to frighten them away.

It’s no surprise that many local women feel that the wildlife monitoring projects were just a disguise to intimidate and control them.

The forest plays a crucial part in the lives of the women in the area, where they spend a lot of time gathering firewood and herbs. Part of their lively tradition is singing songs that have symbolic meaning and serve a real-life purpose – scaring away dangerous wildlife.

The harassment via wildlife cameras has directly affected this cultural practice. Now, many women choose to stay quiet to avoid unwanted attention, leading to tragedy. One local woman was killed by a tiger.

“Nobody could have realized 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,” said the study's lead author, Dr. Trishant Simlai.

“Surveillance technologies that are supposed to be tracking animals can easily be used to watch people instead – invading their privacy and altering the way they behave,” he added.

The researchers urge conservationists to carefully evaluate the social impacts of remote monitoring technologies and to explore whether less intrusive methods could be enough for them to achieve their goals.