This paper addresses one of the most under-researched areas of resource use and management in rural India, that of “wild resources,” and explores the links between ecological change, famine and poverty.

This paper takes the case of the cinchona tree to examine the rhetoric of colonial science in conjunction with its economic and political functions.

While their paintings and photographs sometimes helped to secure the protection of particular places, nineteenth-century artists often showed little respect for the environment when they set about securing their views.

The idea for this journal began as a result of a conversation between the editor and Professor Ranajit Guha in 1988. “What we need now,” Professor Guha claimed, “is a history of sticks and stones.”