Professor Prabhakar B. Bhagwat or Bade Sir, as he was referred to by many, was born in 1930. He followed his father’s footsteps, Bhalchandra Vitthal Bhagwat- who was the Superintendent of the Empress Botanical Gardens in Pune. It was in those gardens that he grew up and developed a natural affinity towards nature, landscape and plant material. He started his life as a garden apprentice at the age of 15.