Almond flowers in full bloom in Kashmir
Almond flowers in full bloom
The flower bloom on Almond trees indicates the arrival of Spring in the Kashmir Valley. The famous Almond Garden, ''Badamwari' of Srinagar city has thousands of Almond trees, which are in full bloom and all set to welcome tourists as well as locals.
The tourism department of Kashmir plans to celebrate the full spring season across the various gardens of Srinagar city. The festival will start from Badamwari as almond flowers are the first to bloom. The garden located at the foothills of Kohi-Maraan mountain on 300 kanals of land has more than 1000 almond trees.
''We are having spring season and let me share the good news that we will be celebrating springtime as the full season this year. It would normally be confined to celebrating tulip festival only. But tulips come in the last week of March or the first week of April so this time we have decided to celebrate other flowers also which come early in the spring season. We start with badamwari, when the almond bloom is there, then we have wild tulips which bloom much earlier than the tulips we have in Srinagar. Similarly,we have some other flowers which come in March. We have decided we will be having a full-time season. We are expecting a good number of tourists this season as well. '' said Director Tourism, GN Itoo.
The locals, as well as the tourists, are already thronging these gardens. Social networking sites are filled with pictures of the flowers of Almond. And now the government expects that all previous records of tourist arrivals would be broken this spring. The tourists already in the valley are enjoying the view of the bloom.
''It's quite beautiful, when we think about Kashmir, we mostlythink of snow, but this side of Kashmir is so mesmerizing and beautiful too. The spring is pretty, and people should experiencethis as well. This is our first time in this garden and it's so amazing. We googled to see what an almond bloom looks like before coming here. '' said Anupama, Tourist.
The government is planning to organise many events in the Gardens of Kashmir Valley to promote spring tourism as well as these gardens. The people who are visiting are mesmerised by the views of these blooms.
''We are finding it very beautiful,and we had no plans of coming to this almond garden, so someone in the flight suggested we come here. We foundit so beautifuland it's worth coming to this garden. And coming to Kashmir is just fantasticand everything is proving worth it to come to Kashmir. I would ask people to visit as it's the real heaven. '' said Rashmi, a Tourist.
The spring season had seen very less tourist arrivals in the Kashmir Valley in the last two years due to the pandemic. The tourist stakeholders now hope that this year, they would be able to compensate for the losses.
