Asia’s biggest Tulip Garden at Siraj Bagh in Srinagar, Kashmir is now open for the year. Normally the garden opens with the start of April. But this year it has opened a week earlier owing to favourable weather conditions. We can also say that because the winter winded up a bit early and it brought the spring before time in the valley, hence the tulips also started blooming early. Hence the garden at Siraj Bagh on the banks of the Dal Lake was thrown open for the tourists on 25th March. Not all the bulbs have bloomed, still some to go. It would be full by the start of April. It is indeed once in a lifetime chance to see more than a million tulips of different hues and shades blooming at a place which we call as paradise on earth.
Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Khan, declared open the mesmerising tulip garden for all visitors. While praising the beauty of the place, Khan said that Jammu and Kashmir is endowed with beautiful natural landscapes, which have huge potential for tourism.
He said earlier tourists were visiting other world famous gardens and places of Kashmir, but now the tulip garden has become an iconic destination and attraction for them. On the occasion, the advisor informed that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will inaugurate six days Tulip Festival on April 3 when the garden will be in full bloom. He said that during the festival, display of rich tradition, culture, cuisines and crafts on the stalls will be set by concerned departments so that tourists will become familiar with rich culture and values here.
Formerly known as Siraj Bagh, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden was opened in 2008 by then chief minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state Ghulam Nabi Azad. The idea of the garden, spread over 30 hectares in the foothills of snow-clad Zabarwan range, was conceived to advance the tourism season in the valley by two months.