India: Himachal Pradesh sees happy tourists as tulips blooms at its first tulip garden

Himachal Pradesh, India: A record-breaking number of visitors are anticipated to visit the state as the tulips bloom at the first tulip garden in Himachal Pradesh (HP) at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technologies (IHBT), Palampur.

The garden, which officially opened to the public on February 25, 2023, has already seen over 40,000 visitors in less than two weeks. It is quickly growing to be a well-liked tourist destination in the area, drawing visitors even from the nearby state of Punjab.

Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, the Chief Minister of HP, Education Minister Rohit Thakur, and other senior HP government officials visited the CSIR-IHBT to view the Tulip garden prior to its opening to the general public. CM Sukhu was so impressed with the finest and various varieties of brightly coloured Tulips, which were a true delight to the eyes, that he asked the Deputy Commissioner of Kangra, Dr Navin Jindal, to have a look at those.

In general, tulips make great cut flowers for vase decorating and garden flowers. The tulip has been consistently ranked among the top ten cut flowers in the world for more than 50 years. Tulip flowers are highly sought-after on the global market because of their exquisite blossoms in a range of colours and shapes. The tulip flower is a temperate crop, and the commencement of flowering in its bulbs depends on a cold temperature regime.

The director of CSIR-IHBT, Dr Prabodh Kumar Trivedi, informed the audience that Holland supplied the tulip bulbs to India. And about 90 lakh bulbs for 35 crores rupees were imported annually, which was a sizable sum.

He said that the CSIR-IHBT Palampur, in contrast, had been working on tulip agrotechnology since 2018 and had found Lahaul, HP, and Ladakh to be cold desert areas (>2400 m altitude) suited for its bulb production. The institute’s tulip garden, which contains 45,000 tulip plants of 12 different types this year, was started using locally produced bulbs.