It was a riot of colours on Wednesday when Srinagar’s Tulip Garden was thrown open and tourists and school children grabbed the opportunity to capture the flowers in their cameras.
The Tulip Garden on the banks of Srinagar’s Dal Lake was thrown open to the public marking beginning of the new tourist season in the Kashmir Valley.
It was a feast for the eyes of tourists from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and other places who thronged the sprawling garden and took selfies amidst colourful tulips. Most visitors were from outside J&K which indicates a good tourist season.
The garden was thrown open to the public by chief secretary Arun Kumar Mehta.
Mehta said the last six months have seen the highest-ever tourist footfall in Kashmir. Tourism has revived and people are not getting rooms as hotels in the valley are fully booked for several months.
He said the government was working on opening and promoting 75 new tourist destinations.
The garden houses 1.5 million flowers of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and muscari. These include 68 varieties of tulips, In-charge of Tulip Garden Inam Rehman Sofi said.
Visitors will be able to see six new varieties of tulips, he said.
Sofi said last year, 2.25 lakh people visited the garden, and this year “we expect more”.
The chief secretary said that the floriculture department has this time introduced online ticketing for the garden to facilitate tourists who earlier had to stand in a queue to buy an entry ticket.
The lifespan of tulips is brief and it lasts about three weeks. Tulip bulbs are planted in phases so that the flowering stretches for a longer period.