Palampur’s Tulip Garden sees surge in visitors

The vibrant blooms of Tulip Garden in Palampur, which is now in its fourth year, is drawing visitors from across the country.

It is Himachal Pradesh’s first Tulip Garden planted by CSIR- Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), Palampur. This year, it was thrown open to the public on February 26 by Dr Jitendra Singh, minister of state (independent charge) ministry of science and technology and ministry of earth sciences, and vice-president CSIR.

According to officials, the number of visitors has already surpassed 78,000 so far. While last year, it welcomed around 80,000 visitors and it is anticipated that this year’s numbers may reach up to one lakh. It will remain open to the public till next week.

Tulips are bulbous cut flowers that have huge international and domestic demand. It ranks third in the world’s top cut flower trade. The institute first imported the tulip bulbs from Holland in 2018 and started trials for localised production. The garden was inaugurated in February 2022.

This year, seven varieties of tulips, Strong gold (yellow), Laptop (purple), Mount tacoma (White), Lucky one (bright red), Pink breeze (pink), Lali bela (Orange) and Rodio drive (Red) have been grown in the garden and the number of bulbs used is 50,000, which remained unchanged from last year when the number of bulbs was same.

Last year, the institute initiated experimental tests in the Lahaul valley to explore the commercial cultivation potential of tulips, focusing on flower and bulb production. Initially, farmers associated with different cooperative societies received training and support to undertake tulip cultivation. These farmers have since become involved in tulip farming, aiming for both bulb and flower yields, and are now experiencing positive outcomes.

Bhavya Bhargava, principal scientist at the institute who is spearheading this project, said that there are around 90,000 bulbs in Lahaul-Spiti and the areas under its cultivation have been increased. “The institute is doing studies on its developmental biology and we are getting good results. We have also found out that the Tulips grown in Lahaul-Spiti are very good in quality.”

Meanwhile, Dr Sudesh Kumar Yadav, director CSIR-IHBT said, “For the New Delhi Municipal Council’s (NDMC) Tulip festival this year, which was held in February, 15,000 tulips were cultivated domestically at Palampur’s CSIR- Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT). Our aim is to minimise the dependence on imports and focus on indigenous production.”