Asia’s largest tulip festival begins in Srinagar

• Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah threw open Asia’s largest tulip garden on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar on March 16.

• The tulip garden was among 44 destinations closed for tourists in 2025 following the Pahalgam terror attack in April that killed 26 people. 

• It reopened this year after a security audit. 

Key points on tulip garden:

• Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip garden in Srinagar is spread over an area of about 30 hectares.

• It is situated on the foothills of Zabarwan Range with an overview of Dal Lake. 

• It is the largest tulip garden in Asia.

• The garden was opened in 2007 with the aim to boost floriculture and tourism in Kashmir Valley. 

• The garden is built on a sloping ground in a terraced fashion consisting of seven terraces. 

• Apart from tulips, many other species of flowers — hyacinths, daffodils and ranunculus have been added as well

• Tulip festival is an annual celebration that aims to showcase the range of flowers in the garden as a part of tourism efforts by the government of Jammu & Kashmir. 

• It is organised during the onset of spring season in Kashmir valley.

• The garden is usually opened for visitors in the last week of March. 

• However, as Kashmir witnessed the hottest February in decades, the tulips started to bloom early.

• More than 70 varieties of tulips will be on display at the garden as the floriculture department has increased the density of bulbs to give a richer look to the garden, where over 1.8 million bulbs have been planted.

• CM Abdullah said various stakeholders are working on making floriculture a commercial venture whereby flowers grown here are exported to other parts of the country.

• Efforts are underway to develop tulip bulbs locally to save the expenditure on importing them from the Netherlands.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)