Srinagar 

Wande, chali, Sheen gali, Beyi Yi Bahar 

(The winter will pass, snow will melt, spring will return). 

Although this Kashmiri saying signifies relief after adversity, fits perfectly , in a literal sense, with the tulip garden’s opening, heralding spring. 

Located at the base of the Zabarwan hills in Srinagar, the awe-inspiring mountain range bordering the Central part of Kashmir, Asia’s largest tulip garden was thrown open for visitors on Wednesday. 

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah inaugurated the garden. 

Sporting a traditional Kashmiri pheran, the Chief Minister visited the vast garden and interacted with several tourists. 

The government had already given large publicity to the opening ceremony with local broadsheets plastered with front page advertisements, announcing the event.  

Featuring over 1.7 million tulips of 74 varieties, the well-manicured garden bursting with riot of colours is expected to bring a record number of visitors . Flowers such as hyacinths, daffodils, muscari, and cyclamen are ready to welcome the tourists. 

On the first day of the opening, both local and outstation tourists were seen standing in serpentine queues to enter the garden. 

 “I have seen such a garden in Europe. It is really a great feeling to have such a vast garden here”, said a group of tourists from Karnataka—all bundled up in woollens. 

Last year, more than 4.6 lakh tourists visited the garden, compared to 3.7 lakh in 2023 and 3.6 lakh in 2022. 

An official told businessline that online tickets have been made available for the visitors for the first time. 

“We have introduced a QR based ticketing facility  at a few locations including the airport”, he said.

The official said that they were expecting a record number of tourist arrivals this season.

The Garden

Spanning over an area of around 74 acres, the garden was established by former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2007, when militancy was still a major concern, to give further boost to the region’s tourism sector. Thousands of tulip bulbs were imported from the Netherlands for setting up the garden. 

In 2014, the World Tulip Summit Society declared it as the second-best garden in the world. 

Each year, hundreds of gardeners beavered away for several months ahead of the garden’s opening.