Hands nurturing Kashmir’s iconic Tulip Garden have a tale to tell
Mohammad Ayoub Lone, a gardener in his 40s with the floriculture department, stands guard as thousands of visitors and tourists jostle around plots of tulip flowers at Kashmir’s iconic Tulip Garden
Mohammad Ayoub Lone, a gardener in his 40s with the floriculture department, stands guard as thousands of visitors and tourists jostle around the plots of tulip flowers at Kashmir’s iconic Tulip Garden, one of the biggest in Asia, where 1.5 million flowers are in bloom.
All through the year, he and his fellow colleagues have nurtured these herbaceous plants from small bulbs to now showy bright flowers like some precious jewels.
“For the rest of 11 months, we remain covered with sweat, mud and dust and this is the only month when we are without any trowel or spade. Right now we are safeguarding these flowers from any human damage,” Lone says.
The garden was thrown open on March 23 to a grand response. More than 47,000 tourists and locals, including many VIPs and top officials of the Valley, have visited the place in these four days.
“The response of the people has been overwhelming,” says Sofi Inam-ur-Rehman, floriculture officer and in-charge of the Tulip Garden.
As much the clamour over the garden’s beauty, aesthetics and the sheer number of tulips -1.5 million, it was not impossible without the toil of Lone and his other 80 workmates, including gardeners and labourers.
Lone, who has been taking care of the garden since its establishment in the year 2007, says that when the tulips bloom they get overjoyed but soon get taken over by melancholy.
“The more people come here to enjoy this beauty, the more satisfaction we get that our hard work has borne fruit. But it is also a fact that nobody talks or thinks about us for the rest of the 11 months. Only this month we see everybody from officials to ministers,” he says.
And as the officials and other Kashmiris visit with their families and the pictures flood the social media, these gardeners have to consistently dodge the requests of their own families and friends.
They can only bring their families to the garden when explicitly provided permission by the officers and that too in the last days of the bloom when the flowers start to fall and any of their friends visiting the place is a strict no-no.
“When we work hard on the garden our higher-ups tell us that our families have the first right to see this garden but then they forget. We mostly get permission to bring our families on the last days when the bloom period is over. In the first days they say that they will incur loss. Our families often say that we are just labourers and have no say or respect despite working over the garden all around the year,” Lone says.
Mohammad Yaqoob, a gardener in his 50s from Khonmoh, says that he has never brought his family to visit the garden.
“When my friends insist on coming to the garden, I make excuses and tell them that I am out for work. Sometimes I take leave to avoid the humiliation. Sometimes I buy tickets from my own pocket,” he says.
And then there is the issue of manpower as well. The gardeners say that their work is increasing every year as the number or workers have dwindled from 120 to 80 of which around half are still working on a daily wage basis.
Yaqoob says that they have to work non-stop with no leave even when they become ill. “There is no break even when one is ill. The work continues throughout the year. This is no transfer and no new recruitment,” he says.
Lone says around 40 of their fellow workers are yet to get their services regularised after working for more than 20 years.
“Around 40 are daily wagers earning not more than Rs15,000 per month. Many of these daily wagers have been working since 2000. They gave their youths for this garden and are still not getting regularised. I myself was working as a daily wager for 16 years till I was regularised,” he says.
Sofi Inam-ur-Rehman, the in-charge of the Tulip Garden, acknowledges the increasing workload of the gardeners. “The number of gardeners has been decreasing owing to retirement as well as deaths during Covid-19. The workload does increase as of the 112 total workers, only 70-80 only does gardening work,” he said.
He says that the question of additional recruitment and regularisation should be asked from higher authorities. “We have informed the administration and you can ask them,” he says.
Preparation of the garden
Usually, the tulip bloom starts by late March. The average life of a tulip flower is 20 days and can stretch to a maximum of 25 with overall bloom getting extended by adding late blooming varieties of tulips.
The flowers start to fall by late April. The foliage of the tulip bulbs is allowed to dry up for the month of May and up to June 15 which starts a rigorous process when summer heat is at peak.
“From June onwards for the three months we have to remove the bulbs from soil and store them cautiously in sheds. This is the most painstaking process where it gets difficult to differentiate between our clothes and the summer dust. In the intense heat we bathe three times during the day,” says Lone, gardener.
Gardener Mohammad Yaqoob says that the bloom every year gives them a sense of hope. “Irrespective of the difficulties and toil, we are fond of this work because it feels so elevating after the flowers bloom,” he says.