Trends

Blooming beauties

Garden tourism may still be new-age lingo in India, but tour operators are now waking up to it as the new big-ticket concept, says Jyoti Verma.

You don't need to know your lilies from the lotuses to appreciate these blooming beauties. This horticulture adventure is about enjoying elegance, and creativity: from the roses and chrysanthemums showing off their picture-perfect colours to the daffodils, hyacinths and tulips perfuming the air, from beautiful ornamental plants and flowers in elegant forms and shapes to large swathes of the path brimming with seasonal colours.

Indeed, garden tourism may still be new-age lingo in India but it is a concept helping horticulturists reap rich returns from tourists of late. And going by the increasing footfalls on the Royal Mughal gardens like Nishat and Shalimar in Kashmir, the dancing fountains at Mysore's Brindavan, Kolkata's Botanical Garden and its two-century old banyan tree, and even the majestic Mughal Gardens of Delhi, this is the newest big-ticket idea tour planners are waking up to.

If Bangalore's Arun Pai is to be believed, the "sun has just risen" for gardens in India. The brain behind Bangalore Walks, a group of like-minded people who also organise the Green Heritage Walks, Pai is elated at the ever-growing crowd thronging the city's gardens and the average tourists' eagerness to know more. Pai is already busy scanning books to know more about the gardens in Bangalore so that he is able to "deliver better" to the tourists. His friend Vijay Thiruvady, conductor of the Green Heritage Walks, takes equal pride at seeing the long queues at the ticket counter. Says he: "Lalbagh has a history that dates back to much before it was even founded. The rocky outcrop at the entrance here, designated a National Geological Monument, is one of the oldest rock formations in the world (composed of granite gneiss). More than 3,000 million years old, these were formed by volcanic eruption of the Gondwanaland. This part moved north into the Asian continent creating the Himalayas. Thus the rock we see at Lalbagh is half as old as earth itself and very much a part of eternity."

And then there is Siraj Bagh, overlooking the Dal Lake in Kashmir. Developed as one of the largest tulip gardens in the world, the state's horticulture department is already bracing up for the tourist rush during the Baisakhi festival. Says K K Sharma, director of the Jammu and Kashmir government's horticulture department, busy giving finishing touches to the garden, "We have tourists visiting our gardens throughout the year, but spring is the time when we record the maximum rush. This is also the time when we give the gardens a major facelift. This year we are planning a tulip garden spread in 72 acres and expect it to be ready soon. From the feedback we get from tourists, we are confident Indians won't need to go abroad to see tulips anymore." Even Ooty's famous Botanical Garden organises a summer festival every year in May. Spread over 55 acres, the almost two-century-old garden boasts rare tree species that are not found anywhere else in the country: like the 20-million-year-old fossilised tree and a monkey puzzle tree (apparently, monkeys cannot climb this tree).

Chandigarh's Pinjore Garden too has been a regular fixture on the must-do list of tourists on their way to Shimla. The fascinating Mughal Gardens here boast a mini zoo, plants nursery, a Japanese garden and picnic lawns. Unlike other Mughal Gardens, the seven terraces at Pinjore, instead of ascending, descend into the distance.

Towering over all the gardens in the country is Delhi's famous Mughal Garden inside Rashtrapati Bhawan. The gardens, open every year between March and April, even had fragrant roses this year: the 13-acre lawn, complete with musical, spiritual and herbal gardens and a bio-diversity park, has a new fragrant rosarium developed in the terrace garden. Built by Edward Lutyen, it also has provisions for the visually impaired visitors: with Braille boards installed in front of each plant, the visually challenged guests can feel the plants and smell their leaves here. The 'Touch and Smell garden' at the National Botanical Research Institute in Lucknow also has similar labels on plants in Braille.

The capital's Garden of Five Senses (also called Said-ul-Ajaib) organises an annual festival, which, apart from being a hot tourist destination, also promotes gardening. Its theme this year was topiary art. Says Sudhir Sobti, deputy manager, Delhi Tourism, "The festival proved to be a platform where gardening enthusiasts could get tips on how topiary can be tried back home." The garden, says tour operator Maharaj I S Wahi, chairman of the Travel Promotion Bureau, is the perfect example of the long way garden tourism has come in India. "It is a man-made park where the caretakers have taken a number of tourism-oriented steps. Other examples include Mysore's Brindavan Garden, which added dancing fountains in 2004. Delhi's Lodi Garden, besides its scenic setting, even has an eatery. You need to work on quality additions like these and package the entire thing to ensure frequent arrivals. Making the gardens self-sustaining is another important step," Wahi explains.

Subhash Goyal of Stic Travels, however, says that garden tourism still has a long way to go in India. Says he: "In India, tourists don't visit cities only for the gardens. The possibility of selling garden packages is still not a very viable proposition."

Wahi, on the other hand, has the perfect solution, "We can take inspiration from Denmark's Tivoli Gardens. It is spread over a huge area with recreation as well as eating out options within to engage tourists. The wholesome experience which these gardens provide ensures that it is popular among tourists."