Tulip Festival in Srinagar

The tulip garden is seen as a milestone in making holidays memorable for thousands of domestic and foreign tourists who come to the valley

The Jammu and Kashmir government has organised a 15-day tulip festival in Srinagar’s Siraj Bagh to attract tourists from various parts of the world.

With the aim to encourage tourism, the Jammu and Kashmir government has organised the mega tulip festival from April 1 to April 15. The tulip festival will be a part of ‘Bahaar-e-Kashmir’, which will showcase Asia’s largest tulip garden in Srinagar. The Department of Floriculture has planned to exhibit over two million tulips of 46 varieties in the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden. The ambience of the garden, located at the foothills of Zadarwan, is surrounded by Dal Lake.

“We request tourists to visit the garden instead of travelling to Holland to see the beautification of the tulips. We also invite locals to the garden to enjoy the wonderful sight of beautifully planted flowers,” Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Secretary, Farooq Shah said.

Hundreds of workers and professional gardeners have been appointed on the field.

“We are eagerly waiting for the garden to get opened so that we get to see wonderful sight of the place with tulip flowers spread all over the garden. We are happy and pray for a normal situation for the visitors to explore tulip season without any turbulence in Srinagar,” Farhan, a local visitor stated.

With a traditional and ethnic touch, the festival will also have decorated kiosks and stalls portraying handicrafts and cuisine of the valley.

“On the sidelines of this mega festival, an ‘Aalmi Mushaira’ event will be held, wherein world famous poets will enthral the audience with their latest Urdu compositions. This too would be first-of-its-kind in the valley,” added Shah.

Other botanical gardens

The Shalimar Garden, an example of Mughal era gardens built by the Emperor Jahangir, is a popular touristic destination. The garden comprises four terraces, containing a canal supplied with water from the Sarbandh water body in Harwan Bagh nearby. The garden is considered to be very beautiful during the autumn and spring seasons due to the colour change in leaves of the famed Chinar trees.

Nishat Bagh, considered to be second only to the royal Shalimar Gardens in size and significance, is found on the eastern side of the Dal Lake in the vicinity of Srinagar within the Vale of Kashmir. Nishat Bagh is an adaptation of the traditional Persian chahar bagh (four gardens). The garden was originally planted with cypress and fruit trees. The Nishat Bagh is best approached by water taxi from Dal Lake. On the first terrace, the visitor finds a pool collecting water from a water chute that emerges from the garden’s enclosure wall.

The Garden of Chashma Shahi named because of a mountain spring that waters it, includes three terraces, an aqueduct, waterfalls and fountains. The fresh water spring in these pleasant, calm gardens is renowned to have medicinal values. There is also a small shrine, the Chasma Sahibi, close to the gardens, which also has a fresh water spring. Chashma Shahi is small and charming.