Asia’s largest tulip garden thrown open to public in Srinagar

Ensconced between the Dal Lake and the Zabarwan Hills, Asia’s largest tulip garden was thrown open to the public on Saturday, officials said.

The Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden, earlier known as Siraj Bagh, was opened for the public as tulips of different colours have started to bloom,floriculture department officials said.

“We have thrown the garden open for tourists and locals. We hope that record number of tourists will visit the garden this spring,” said the garden’s in-charge, and added that this year, five more varieties of tulips were introduced in the garden, adding to the existing 68 varieties. “This spring, a bloom of 1.7 million flowers will be seen in the garden,” he added.

“These new varieties will give an enchanting experience to the visitors making the splendid garden extremely beautiful,” said floriculture commissioner secretary Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad.

The department plants the tulip bulbs in a phased manner so that the flowers remain in the garden for a month or more.

“This is wonderful garden. Once you reach, you forget everything. Its such a beautiful place,” said Sudesh Kumar, a tourist from Delhi who visited the garden with his family. “The climate is wonderful and everyone should visit this garden,” he added.

“When the garden blooms fully, there will be a rainbow of tulips,” department officials said.

The department has also increased the area of the tulip garden by adding another two lakh bulbs. A record 17 lakh tulip bulbs have been planted in the garden spread over 55 hectares, the officials said.

Other spring flowers such as hyacinths, daffodils, muscari and cyclamens will also be on display to add to the variety of flowers and colours in the garden, they said.

The Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden was set up by Ghulam Nabi Azad, the then-chief minister of the erstwhile state, in 2007 to advance the tourist season that was earlier limited to summers and winters.

The garden started on a small scale with 50,000 tulip bulbs imported from The Netherlands. It instantly gained popularity and has been steadily growing each year -- both in terms of the number of visitors and the tulips.

More than 3.65 lakh visitors, both domestic and foreign, visited the garden last year while it witnessed a footfall of 3.60 lakh people in 2022.

The tulip garden is also one of the favourite locations for shooting films and videos as several units from across the country shot parts of their projects at the site last year.

The official added that the department has added nearly 22,000 square feet of additional parking space for the convenience of visitors.

Due to the rush, the traffic department on Saturday evening issued special advisory for tourists and locals planning to visit this garden. The officials said the coming days will see further increase the tourists and local visitors to the garden.