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Nestled between the Dal Lake and the Zabarwan Hills, Asia’s largest tulip garden opened for the public on Wednesday, marking the beginning of a new tourism season in the Kashmir valley.
The Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden was thrown open to the public by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
The garden was set up by Ghulam Nabi Azad, the then chief minister of the erstwhile state in 2007 to advance J-K’s tourist season which was earlier limited to the summers and the winters.
Formerly known as Siraj Bagh, the garden was opened to the public as tulips of different colours have started to bloom, Floriculture Department officials said.
The department plants tulip bulbs in a phased manner so that the flowers remain in bloom for a month or more.
This year, the department has added two new varieties of tulips to the garden.
A new colour scheme has been introduced this year, and the total number of varieties of tulips and other flowers has risen to 74.
Other spring flowers including hyacinths, daffodils, muscari and cyclamens are also on display.
About 17 lakh tulip bulbs have been planted in the garden that spreads over 55 hectares, the officials said.
The extension of the garden has reached almost its full capacity, they said.
The garden started on a small scale with 50,000 tulip bulbs imported from The Netherlands. It instantly gained popularity among tourists and has been steadily growing each year, both in terms of the number of visitors and the tulips that bloom.
More than 4.65 lakh visitors, both domestic and foreign, visited the garden last year while the footfall in 2023 was 3.65 lakh.
