The garden, spread across about 74 acres, was set up in 2007 by former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad

“Wande tzale, sheen gali, beyi yi bahaar” (winter will depart, the snow will melt, and spring will arrive again), Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said after inaugurating Asia’s largest tulip garden on Monday.

The Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden was thrown open to visitors in a riot of colours, heralding the arrival of spring.

Featuring more than 1.8 million tulips of over 70 varieties, the well-manicured garden, nestled at the foothills of the Zabarwan Range, is expected to attract a record number of visitors. Flowers such as hyacinths, daffodils, muscari and cyclamen have been planted to welcome tourists.

“We hope this spring season brings a new beginning for Jammu and Kashmir and everyone associated with the tourism sector. They have gone through a difficult time, but just as seasons change, circumstances change too,” Abdullah said.

He expressed hope that the garden would remain filled with both locals and tourists throughout the blooming season.

Abdullah said the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) had proposed developing tulip bulbs locally and exploring ways to extend the blooming season by using hot houses to artificially control flowering and supply flowers to markets.

“There is also a lack of cold chain infrastructure. If that is improved and flowers can be transported through rail or air cargo, I don’t think it will be difficult to promote the floriculture industry here,” he said.

He added that SKUAST and the Floriculture Department had taken responsibility for propagating tulip bulbs locally to reduce the foreign exchange spent on importing bulbs from the Netherlands.

“We spend significant foreign exchange on importing tulip bulbs from the Netherlands, and efforts are being made to propagate them here to cut those costs,” Abdullah said.

The garden, spread across about 74 acres, was set up in 2007 by former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad at a time when militancy remained a major concern in the region, with the aim of promoting tourism. Thousands of tulip bulbs were imported from the Netherlands to establish the garden. In 2014, the World Tulip Summit Society ranked it as the world’s second-best tulip garden. Every year, hundreds of gardeners work for months in advance to prepare the garden for its seasonal opening. According to official data, the garden recorded a total of 814,727 visitors between March 26 and April 20, 2025.

Published on March 16, 2026