Rayees Ahmad Kumar
For the past few weeks, tourists and visitors from all parts of the country and abroad are massively thronging to the land of beauty and charm. They don’t come to mesmerize themselves in the vast meadows and upper reaches of world famous hill station of Gulmarg, the pristine climate and high altitude snow caps of Sonamarg or the historical Mughal gardens. Instead their main choice to visit these days is Tulip Garden.
Nestled in the lap of majestic Zabarwan Hills and close to famous Cheshmashahi and Botanical Garden, the Tulip Garden is presently housing millions of vibrant and multiple coloured tulip bulbs.
Developed during the reign of former chief minister of erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad and officially recognized as Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden, the garden spreads over thirty hectares of fertile land on the banks of world famous Dal Lake.
Though the shelf life of Tulip flowers is very short and soon the bulbs wither away, the rush of the visitors both local and non locals is surging with each passing day. To accommodate the heavy rush of people intending to visit and ensuring their seamless tour, civil and police administration of city is finding it challenging to control the vehicular and other traffic on the boulevard road and other roads leading to the garden, at times one way traffic is only allowed during peak hours to minimize the traffic jam.
As per some media reports, 81452 visitors toured this garden in a single day, marking it as the preferred choice among the visitors during the ongoing spring season of valley. This has boosted our tourism sector besides raising the economy of the region.
According to some online news portal, in just fifteen days, Asia’s largest tulip garden has surpassed the previous record of footfall. Featured in the World book of records, the garden is showcasing 1.7 tulips of 74 varieties, drawing massive crowds from across the globe. This achievement reaffirms garden’s global appeal and it’s significant role in promoting valley’s growing tourism potential.
Soon after culmination of February month each year, people of valley long for the opening of Tulip garden, as it offers the recreational avenues with spring season knocking the doors of valley. It marks the end of extremely shivering winter season.
This year after being thrown open by the chief minister, record number of visitors have paid a visit. Enthusiasm and eagerness among the visitors is evident from their passion to take photographs and selfies in the garden, uploading them on the social media and attending the festivities there. Valley’s famous hot traditional green tea Kehwa is served there to attract huge crowd besides popularizing the centuries old staple beverage.
The enchanting scenes and charm of the Tulip garden, has encouraged administration and locals to go for more such gardens. As a result many gardens were developed which too attract both local and non locals tourists. At Pulwama, Kokernag Anantnag and Udhampur, the newly developed Tulip gardens spread over several kanals of land house many varieties of tulips. People of the area are expressing their utmost desire to develop these gardens at par with the Asia’s largest Tulip garden of Srinagar to attract massive tourist influx. Sometimes the musical concerts and other festivals held in the garden, draws big crowds including the people from different walks of life.
From ordinary people to bureaucrats and ministers, everyone visits the garden to get the glimpses of millions of varied coloured bulbs planted in beds, lawns and pathways. The huge tourist influx recorded these days is primarily due to tulip garden, but the other health resorts too eagerly wait the arrival of local and foreign visitors during the summer season.
Although the least snowfall during this winter couldn’t attract a pleasing number of tourists and skiers, the winter festival and winter Games at Gulmarg were delayed, yet we expect a great number of tourists to visit here during summer. It will help in strengthening our economy as well as exchange of ideas and cultural traditions.
As hosts, we appeal the people of globe not to restrict yourself to Tulip garden only, Kashmir has lot to offer, and our world famous health resorts and hill stations always welcomes you.
(The author hails from Qazigund and can be reached at [email protected])
