Photos: Tulip Festival at Srinagar's Tulip Garden

Visitors walk inside Kashmir's tulip garden on the foothills of Zabarwan mountain range in Srinagar. The 6-day long festival at Asia’s largest Tulip Garden is being organized by the Department of Floriculture in collaboration with the Tourism department of J&K.

A woman clicks a selfie with tulip flowers at Tulip Garden. The 'Tulip Festival' was thrown open by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan's presence at the majestic Tulip Garden, which was opened for visitors last month after two years.

Hundreds of visitors, locals, and tourists flocked to the garden on the first day of the festival amid an almost full bloom of the tulip bulbs to be a part of the festival.

The 30 hectare-garden presented a colourful look as 15 lakh tulip bulbs of various colours and 62 varieties captivated the visitors.

Tourists click selfie inside Tulip Garden during Tulip Festival, in Srinagar.

Due to the pandemic last year, the garden remained closed for visitors and incurred huge losses. This year, however, authorities have made it mandatory for visitors to wear face masks when entering the garden, as well as follow COVID-19 operating procedures.

A child enjoying at Tulip Garden in Srinagar.

The garden, formerly known as Siraj Bagh, is spread out over 30 hectares of land in the foothills of the snow-clad Zabarwan Range in the capital Srinagar.

The tulip flowers survive only for 3-4 weeks, and then in June, the gardeners clean the field by taking out all the buds manually and storing them. Then again, in November, the tulip buds are planted again along with the new ones.

“The opening of the garden is weather dependent. The temperatures in March have gone down from above-normal in February. There is also a prediction of rains from March 07.

Usually, the blooming begins by late March. The average life of a tulip flower is 20 days and can stretch to a maximum of 25 with overall bloom getting extended by adding late-blooming varieties of tulips.

People take a stroll during the inauguration of the Tulip festival at Tulip garden.