Srinagar Tulip garden most beautiful and Asia’s largest tulip garden will open for the public on March 19, 2024. Well known as Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden, is now open for travelers who are nature lovers and who love to admire the beautiful flowers. The garden is located between Dal Lake and the Zabarwan hills in Srinagar and has more than 1.5 million tulips of many colors and hues. The garden was formerly well known as Siraj Bagh and has many other spring flowers as well like daffodils, cyclamens, hyacinths, and muscari.
This time in 2024, the tulip garden boasts an impressive addition of many tulip varieties, including five new ones, bringing the total to 68 varieties. The department has also expanded the garden area and planted two lakh bulbs, which makes it a record-breaking 17 lakh tulips bulbs.
The incharge of the tulip garden Inam-uL Rehman told PTI, “Preparations like gardening, engineering, fungicide treatment, nutrient spraying, and minor repair which we do before the tulip show are going on.”
He said that for the opening on Sunday, hundreds of gardeners worked continuously, though the tulip blooms remain on display for only three to five days only. It is very hard for the entire staff to work continuously all through the year to ensure that the bulb quality is maintained from time to time.
The garden was opened in 2007 according to the Srinagar tourism website, with an objective of boosting floriculture as well as tourism in the valley. The beautiful Tulip Garden spreads over 30 hectares and is built on sloping ground in a terraced fashion comprising about seven terraces. The tulip festival in Srinagar is very popular globally and is an annual celebration that focuses on displaying many flowers in the garden and which is considered as a part of tourism efforts by the Jammu and Kashmir Government. Initially, the garden consisted of 50000 tulips imported from Holland, and after that, it quickly gained much popularity globally among tourists and which experienced steady growth till date both in terms of visitors and tulip varieties.
Last year in 2023, the tulip garden recorded more than 3.65 lakh visitors, both domestic and foreign tourists, which shows the increase in the number of tourists. It is considered as the most preferred tourist destination for the filming of videos and movies as many wish to shoot parts of their projects in the midst of nature and the beauty of this garden. This year the Srinagar Municipal Corporation has been directed to provide proper toilet facilities to all.
Tourists can visit the Tulip Garden from 8am to 7 pm, which are the daily timings. The entry fees were Rs 60 for adults and Rs 25 for children last year and now in 2024, the entry fee is Rs 70 for adults and Rs 30 for children.
According to Sheikh Fayaz Ahmad, Floriculture Commissioner Secretary, “1.7 million tulips are set to bloom this season, the groundwork of which has been completed. The department has also added another four kanals (0.5 acres) of land for the parking lot at the garden to ensure a smooth experience for the visitors.” He added, “Tulip Garden is an internationally recognised garden and it plays an important role for the tourism sector in Kashmir Valley. We always try to add new attractions to the garden every year and this time too we have added floral surprises this year. We have introduced new vibrant colour schemes with five new varieties and apart from that we have added daffodils and hyacinths. 1.7 million tulips will be blooming in the garden this year”.
