Srinagar: More than 4.20 lakh have visited Asia’s largest tulip garden in the last 30 days.
An official said since the Tulip bloom is almost over, the garden will be closed from tomorrow.
The garden, which is located at the foothills of the Zabarwan Range, was opened for tourists on March 23 this year. During this period, tourists from different parts of the country thronged to the garden to witness Tulip blooms.
Tulip Garden witnessed an overwhelming response from the visitors, especially during the Tulip festival, the official said.
He said with the end of the Tulip Bloom season, the authorities have decided to close the garden to the public from tomorrow
The tulip garden in Srinagar witnessed a record number of visitors in the last 30 days. All previous records of tourist footfall have been broken this year.
Tulip Garden saw a record number of visitors last year with 3.7 lakh (370,000) visitors and officials say all previous records have been broken this year.
”As you have witnessed, the Tulip Garden has been breaking all its previous records every year, and this year is also not a surprise for us. We have witnessed 4.2 lakh visitors so far in 30 days. 4.2 lakh visitors have explored the garden so far and many more will come. This year, we also saw a huge number of foreign tourists from various parts of the world coming to the garden, around 2500-3000 foreigners. The tulip committee will soon decide about the closure date of the garden,” said Asif Ahmad Itoo, Floriculture Officer.
Tulip garden has played a major role in attracting more and more tourists to Kashmir Valley during spring. Seeing the huge rush of visitors, the government opened the garden much before the earlier time. It used to open in the first week of April but this time it was opened a week earlier on March 23.
”We have seen the Tulip garden only in films but seeing it in reality is an amazing feeling. We couldn’t have imagined that such a flower could exist in reality. People from around the world come to see this garden. This place is so clean and a paradise on earth,” said Aditya Tripathi, a tourist.
Over 150 gardeners and staff have worked day and night to ready the garden for the public. It takes these gardeners around 6 months to get the garden ready, and huge planning is done much earlier before the opening of the garden. A lot of foreign tourists are coming to the Valley as well, especially to see the Tulip Garden.__Kashmir Monitor
