Youth creates replica of Srinagar's Tulip Garden in Kulgam

Inspired by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden in Srinagar, the largest of its kind in Asia, a 28-year-old youth has created its miniature replica on a rented piece of land in this South Kashmir district.
Instead of hankering after a job in the government or the private sector, Firdaus Ahmad Mir took up floriculture and landscaping as an entrepreneurial venture and started his own tulip farm in Kulgam, 77 kilometres from the original garden in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mir, a resident of the remote village of Poinwah, has planted as many as 50,000 tulips this year, in a rented land of over 10,000 square feet in the nearby Kanpora village.

With tulips in full bloom, the garden resembles Srinagar's Tulip Garden and has become a major attraction for people from the neighbourhood.
A registered flower grower with the state Floriculture Department since 2008, Mir started with planting flowers under Aharbal Development Authority which is responsible for the maintenance of the famous Aharbal Garden nearby.
"I was always interested in flowers and making a specific space beautiful always fascinated me. So I went ahead and turned my love and passion into my calling," Mir said.

"I was studying in BA final year when I became a flower grower," he said, adding, "I always wanted to help beautify this Valley further and add to its colours".

Mir has worked on several projects, including landscape beautification of a residential colony near Srinagar International Airport, Circuit House in Jammu and the District Administration complex at Kulgam.
He is now planning to expand his unit to 1.25 acres by the next year and cultivate more than one lakh tulip bulbs in next season. "I am optimistic about this sector and it can prove helpful in reducing the unemployment rate in the state," he said.