Asia’s largest tulip garden, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar has been closed for this season after witnessing the highest-ever footfall of tourists. Around 3.75 lakh tourists visited the beautiful garden located on the foothills of the Zabarwan mountain range, which was opened for visitors on March 19, 2023.
“A total of 3,65,624 people visited the garden so far from March 20, 2023, till April 18, 2023, including 3154 foreign tourists,” an official told News18. Authorities termed this season as ‘phenomenal’ owing to the heavy footfall of visitors including a large number of foreign tourists.
This year, around 1.5 million Tulips of 68 varieties were planted in the garden, which was named after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and inaugurated by former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Many of the new Tulips in the garden this year were imported from Amsterdam. “There were 68 varieties of tulips in the garden this year and a new water channel with a higher terrace was added,” officials said.
It took 150 gardeners six months to prepare the entire garden.
The government is continuously working on more upgrades to the garden and next year there would be more additions. “The weather was also good which is important for the Tulips,” a gardener told News18.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also tweeted about Asia’s largest Tulip garden following its opening.
The heavy footfall of visitors to the garden has given a new ray of hope to the tourism industry in the Valley.
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