Kashmir’s tulip garden opens to visitors today

In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked the people to visit Kashmir for the opening of the garden in the Himalayan foothills overlooking the Dal Lake

Srinagar’s tulip garden, considered to be one of the biggest with 1.5 million tulips, will be opened on Thursday for tourists.

Officials said up to 1.5 million of 63 varieties of multi-coloured tulips are expected to bloom by the end of this month and last for a maximum of four weeks. (File photo)

In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked the people to visit Kashmir for the opening of the garden in the Himalayan foothills overlooking the Dal Lake.

Officials said up to 1.5 million of 63 varieties of multi-coloured tulips are expected to bloom by the end of this month and last for a maximum of four weeks. They added this year an additional 200,000 tulip bulbs to the 30-hectare terraced garden. Last year, around 1.3 million tulips bloomed amid the lockdown imposed to check the Covid-19 spread.

In a tweet, Junaid Mattu, the mayor of Srinagar, said: “As our Tulip Garden in Srinagar opens for visitors tomorrow [Thursday], as the Mayor of Srinagar I welcome you, your friends and your families to Srinagar! We are a city with a heart and a warmth that beckons! Srinagar awaits your arrival!”

Tulips were once grown on traditional mud rooftops in Kashmir. The garden, which was opened in 2007, attracted 258,000 visitors in 2019 and 190,000 a year earlier. An annual Tulip festival has also been held in the garden.

Kashmir’s tourism sector has been badly hit since 2019 when a lockdown and communications blackout was imposed to prevent protests against the stripping of the region’s semi-autonomous status and division into two Union territories. The Covid-19 lockdown exacerbated the situation.