Asia's Largest Tulip Garden In Jammu And Kashmir Open For Tourists

Asia's largest tulip garden is now open for tourists in Jammu and Kashmir is now open for tourists.

On the 23rd of March, Wednesday, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta announced to throw the garden, overlooking the famous Dal Lake, to the public. With this, the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory, marked the new beginning of the tourism season, expected a huge footfall of at least over 2.5 lakh people.

The Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden, formerly known as Siraj Bagh 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 the snow-clad Zabarwan range, was conceived to advance the tourism season in the valley by two months.

Furthermore, Mr. Arun Kumar Mehta said, the Union Territory administration was working on opening and promoting 75 new tourist destinations. This year the garden houses 1.5 million flowers of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and Muscari. The flowers include 68 varieties of tulips, In-charge of Tulip Garden Inam Rehman Sofi said. He also added. that visitors would be able to see six new varieties of tulips.

This year, the department has made provisions for online ticket sales as well to avoid the rush at the ticket counter. The average lifespan of tulip flowers is three to four weeks, but heavy rains or too much heat can destroy them, informed the media sources.