India, March 27 -- Chances are you've never heard of Allapalli.

A colonial-era forest depot village that has transitioned into a small town, it lies in a remote corner of Maharashtra's Gadchiroli, a district often in the news for the Naxal-linked violence that has gripped the region for decades.

However, before violence came to define this landscape, Allapalli was a name every colonial-era forester worth his salt had to know. Imperial Forest Service officers visited routinely, to see for themselves the "working" (a euphemism for silvicultural management of forests) of the finest example of the famous CP Teak (Central Provinces Teak).

JW Best, a young forest officer posted to Allapalli in 1904, wrote a vivid account of what life was lik...