1.3 million tulips to bloom in Srinagar's Tulip Garden this season

Nestled on the foothills of Zabarwan range, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden here, which is Asia's largest, is all set to have 1.3 million tulips on a display for both domestic and foreign tourists by early next month.

The Garden, overlooking the Dal Lake, would be a riot of colours as the Floriculture Department expects full bloom of tulips this season. “This year, the Department is introducing one lakh additional tulips to its 1.2 million bulbs in the garden. If the weather remains cool and the temperature is below 20 degrees, we will have all the 1.3 million bulbs in full bloom. This season, we hope to keep the garden open for 40 days,” Sheikh Altaf, who is in charge of the Tulip Garden, said.

He said that there will be a water channel in the backyard of the garden to attract visitors and prolong their stay in the garden. “Last year, 2.58 lakh visitors including foreign and domestic tourists visited the Garden. This year, (given the situation last year) we hope to see three lakh visitors including locals also,” the official said.

The tourism players expect that the Garden will once again attract tourists to violence-hit Kashmir. The tourism sector has been badly hit in Kashmir since August 5 last year when the government of India announced the abrogation of Article 370 and sliced the erstwhile state into two Union Territories (UTs)—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. According to tour operators, tourist footfall has been drastically down since August leaving the people associated with the tourism industry in a deep crisis.

A tour operator said the Tulip Garden has become one of the major tourist attractions of the valley. “Our tourism season used to begin from May every year. However, since 2008, the Tulip Garden has advanced our tourism season by over a month. We hope and pray that from now onwards peace prevails in Kashmir so that we carry on our business without any hindrances,” he said.

The garden was opened in 2007 by the then chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad with an aim to boost floriculture and tourism in the Kashmir Valley. Apart from tulips, many other species of flowers - hyacinths and daffodils -- are available here. Spread across an area of 12 hectares, it houses 48 different species of tulips.

The Floriculture Department is also mulling to introduce a 'Cherry garden theme' similar to that in Japan while different varieties of flowers will be kept on a display at the entry and exit points to woo the visitors.