Over 1.35 lakh people visit iconic Tulip garden in Srinagar within 10 days of opening

Despite Ramadan and rainy weather, over 1.35 lakh people, 70 per cent of them tourists, visited Asia’s largest Tulip Garden in Srinagar within the first 10 days of its opening.

According to officials of the Floriculture department, over 1.35 lakh tourists have visited the garden since it opened on March 19, with over 35,000 people visiting it on the third day of its opening.

Located between Dal Lake and the Zabarwan hills in the summer capital, the garden has over 1.6 million tulips of various colours and hues. Besides a scenic display of tulips, the garden, formerly known as Siraj Bagh, has other spring flowers such as hyacinths, daffodils, muscaris and cyclamens.

The garden played an important part in wooing tourists during the 2022 spring, particularly after the Covid disruptions in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the garden witnessed a record number of tourists when around 3.6 lakh people visited it. The number was 2.3 lakh in 2021. The Garden is expected to close by mid-April when tulips start to wither.

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A Floriculture department official said the number could have crossed four lakhs this year, but as the Ramadan started just three days after the opening of the garden, the rush of locals decreased.

“Not many people prefer to go on picnics and other activities during the holy month of Ramadan. But a large number of domestic tourists who are arriving in Kashmir make it a point to visit the garden,” he said.

Delhi resident Abhishek Khanna who visited the famous garden a day before his return flight said that it was one of the best moments of her trip to the Valley.

“After visiting tourist spots of Gulmarg and Pahalgam, we reached Tulip Garden in Srinagar. It was a mesmerising experience to witness so many flowers in full bloom,” he told DH.

The tulip garden was opened in 2007 with the aim of boosting floriculture and tourism in Kashmir. It is built on sloping ground in a terraced fashion, consisting of seven terraces. While tulips are normally associated with the Turks and Dutch, Kashmir is fast catching up with this craze to somehow squeeze itself into the exclusive zone of Tulip-growing regions of the world.