In this scientific article, Trishant Simlai problematises the use of various digital surveillance technologies to monitor wildlife in natural protected areas. The reason is that these technologies often have negative impacts on indigenous peoples or local communities living in or around such areas. Drawing on findings from 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in communities living around a tiger conservation reserve in northern India, the author provides evidence of how the use of camera traps, microphones and lightweight drones disproportionately affects women. Women go to the forest every day to collect different non-timber forest products such as firewood, herbs or fruits, and these activities are not only an essential part of the household economy, but also of their own identity. In addition, the forest represents a fundamental space for the socialisation of these women, sometimes playing an essential role also to escape from the domestic violence they suffer or to forget their problems for a while.

What Simlai observed and documented is that these surveillance technologies generate various harms for women. For example, many of them no longer sing songs - considered a practice of resistance because they denounce the injustices they suffer - or they sing very quietly for fear of being recorded and denounced to government or community authorities. This situation has also made these women more vulnerable to possible attacks by tigers or elephants. In general, women in these communities have had to modify their traditional behaviours in the forest due to the constant risk of being photographed or filmed. This has led to feelings of stress, frustration, fear and even humiliation, as rangers have released images or recordings of women on several occasions. This has the potential to trigger conflict between communities and the state, which in turn compromises conservation efforts.

Simlai's work is very relevant because it shows that the ethical dilemmas and risks derived from the growing adoption of digital technologies to strengthen biological conservation have a very important gender dimension, to the point of generating various forms of violence against women. We can think, moreover, that this situation is extensible to many other geographical contexts, as well as to other environmental management problems. For this reason, it is essential to rethink the unwanted impacts associated with the introduction of digital technologies in indigenous or local communities, and to do so, it is essential to include people in the conversation so that their needs, interests and knowledge are taken into account. Only in this way will we be able to generate fair and sustainable environmental management spaces in the long term.