Tourists at the Tulip Garden on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar. , photo credit: Nisar Ahmed
Buoyed by the success of Srinagar’s tulip gardens in attracting tourists every spring, officials of the Jammu and Kashmir administration are hoping to replicate the floriculture initiative in other parts of the union territory.
Rows of more than 1.5 million multicolored tulips of about 70 varieties greet visitors to Srinagar. They keep in mind the scenes of the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer continuation (1981). movie song saw a dreamShot at the Keukenhof Tulip Garden in the Netherlands, the still captures the imagination of tourists visiting the valley.
Tulips are among the first flowers to bloom after the long winter in Kashmir. Depending on the temperature, the flowers last only three to five weeks.
Sanasar, a bowl-shaped green meadow surrounded by tall deodars in the Ramban district of Jammu province, has four- Canal (0.5 acres) Tulip Garden with 28,000 to 30,000 tulip bulbs in 2017-18. Tulips are grown in terraced beds for better visual appeal.
This year, the area earmarked for Tulip Garden in Sanasar has been increased to 35-40. canal (five acres) with 2.7 lakh tulip bulbs of over 20 varieties,” officials said.
With the tulips likely to last till April, the Divisional Commissioner’s Office in Jammu is trying to bring in more tourists.
Ramban Deputy Commissioner Musarat Zia described the Sanasar Tulip Garden as “the baby tulip cousin of Srinagar”.
now increased to 40 canalIt will spread its fragrance in the last week of March,” Mr Zia said in a tweet.
People queue up to see the colorful Tulip Garden in Udhampur district. The Department of Floriculture has planted 12,000 bulbs of five different varieties at Highland Park, Kud, Udhampur. There are plans to expand the garden.