Srinagar: Asia's largest tulip garden set to open for the season

Preparations are in full swing at Asias largest Tulip Garden nestled between Dal Lake and Zabarwan Hills ahead of its annual opening later this month officials said on ThursdayThe garden formerly known as Siraj Bagh will be open to visitors later this month when the tulip bulbs start to bloom The Floriculture department plants the tulip bulbs in a phased manner so that the flowers remain in the garden for a month or moreAsif Ahmad Assistant Floriculture Officer of the Tulip Garden said the preparations for the gardens opening this year were in full swing This is an important tourist attraction It will be opened for visitors in the coming days he saidOfficials mentioned that workers and employees of the department were busy giving the garden its final touchesAhmad said the department had added two new varieties of tulips to the garden this yearWe try something new for the tulip garden every year We are coming with a new color scheme this year We have added two new varieties of tulips bringing the total number of varieties to 74 he addedThe officer also mentioned that other spring flowers such as hyacinths daffodils muscari and cyclamens would also be on display to add variety to the gardens colors and flowersAbout 17 million tulip bulbs have been planted in the garden which spans 55 hectares of landWe have 17 million bulbs this year and the tourists will be able to see them bloom The extension of the garden has almost reached its full capacity he addedThe Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden was established by thenChief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2007 to extend the tourist season in Jammu and Kashmir which was previously limited to summers and wintersThe garden started on a small scale with 50000 tulip bulbs imported from Holland It quickly gained popularity among tourists and has steadily grown each year both in terms of the number of visitors and the tulips that bloom thereMore than 465 lakh visitors both domestic and foreign visited the garden last year while in 2023 it saw a footfall of 365 lakh peopleLast year 465 lakh visitors came to the garden during its short window of 25 to 30 days This year we hope the numbers will exceed last years We extend our invitation to people from across the country and abroad to come here and witness this flower extravaganza Ahmad addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever