Young men appointed as temporary forest workers shared the photo on local Whatsapp and Facebook groups to “shame the woman,” Simlai said.”We broke and set fire to every camera trap we could find after the daughter of our village was humiliated in such a brazen way,” one local told the researchers.Aiming to avoid the cameras, some women have started roaming farther into the forest, which has the highest density of tigers in the world.The women also sing less than they used to, which was used to deter animal attacks.One local woman — who spoke about fear of cameras forcing her into “unfamiliar spaces” in 2019 — was killed by a tiger earlier this year, Simlai said.’New ways to harass women’Another woman took advantage of the constant surveillance.”Whenever her husband would beat her, she would run in front of the camera so that her husband did not follow her,” Simlai said.Overall, “these technologies are actually very good” and are revolutionising conservation efforts, Simlai emphasised.But he called for more consultation with local communities about the technology, as well as more transparency and oversight from forest authorities, and sensitive training for local workers.”A lot of that can be done by conservation organisations that — in the first instance — introduced these technologies to the government,” Sim added.Rosaleen Duffy, a conservation expert at Sheffield University in the UK, told AFP that “sadly” she was not surprised by this research.
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