Contents: 1. Introduction: First Garden of the Republic/Amita Baviskar. 2. The Formal Gardens: English flowers in an Islamic Charbagh/Amita Baviskar. 3. Avenue and forest trees: Unravelling the planting scheme/Pradip Krishen. 4. Backstage: gardeners at work/Amita Baviskar.  5. Wildlife: creatures great and small/Ghazala Shahabuddin. 6. Birds: heirs of the ecological Mosaiuc/Ghazala Shahabuddin and Amita Baviskar. 7. Seasons: The cycles of life/Ghazala Shahabuddin. Notes.

First Garden of the Republic documents the flora and fauna of the Estate across the seasons. It shows how human agency creates and curates this habitat, looking particularly at the quiet yet constant work done by the mails (gardeners). This book explores how plants and animals make the President’s Estate their own, adapting it to their ends, and the challenges these living creatures and their habitats face today.