Tulip garden dream at Dharamsala falls flat

Conceived on the lines of famous tourist hotspot in Srinagar, garden to be Bio Diversity Park now

Advertisement

Box

It will now be like any other park: Sudhir

“The total project of Tulip Garden funded by the ADB was to come up in two phases and involve an investment of Rs 22 crores. The idea was to develop a tourist attraction here in the form of Tulip Garden in Srinagar. The present government has changed the project concept. It was now like any other park of the city.” Sudhir Sharma, former Cong minister

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 24

Tulip Garden, which was conceived in Dharamsala with funding from Asian Development Bank (ADB) during the stint of previous Congress government, has fallen victim to politics.

The name and concept of the Tulip Garden has been changed.

The garden was conceived keeping in mind Indira Gandhi Tulip Garden in Srinagar, with a view to attract tourists to Dharamsala. The park was to be developed in two phases involving an investment of Rs 22 crores during the stint of previous Congress government.

However, no Tulips would be there in the garden now. Instead, it has been developed as Dhauladhar Biodiversity Park after a period of about 5 years.

Sources here said that the after the change in government in the state in 2017, then local BJP MLA and now MP from Kangra, Kishan Kapoor objected to the work being done in Tulip Garden. On his objections, the Tourism Department changed the concept of the project and developed Tulip Garden as Bio Diversity Park.

The Biodiversity Park now has a children park, grounds, a variety of vegetation and gift shops. Parking was nearing completion. The park has been developed by the Tourism Department with funding of about Rs 7 crores provided by the ADB. It would now be handed over to the eco-tourism society of the Forest Department before it was opened up for public

The DFO Dharamsala, Sanjeev Sharma, when contacted, said, “The Tourism Department has offered us to take over the park. We have asked them to make some changes in infrastructure. They have agreed to affect the changes. Once they affect the changes the forest department’s ecotourism society would take over the project and throw it open for general public”, he said.

Sudhir Sharma, former minister and AICC secretary, who had conceived the idea of Tulip Garden in Dharamsala, flayed the current government for changing the concept of the park. While talking to The Tribune, Sudhir Sharma said that the total project of Tulip Garden funded by the ADB was to come up in two phases and involve an investment of Rs 22 crores. The idea was to develop a tourist attraction in Dharamsala in the form of the famous Tulip Garden in Srinagar.

The present government has changed the project concept. The second phase of development of project has been dropped. It was now like any other park of the city. There was no pointing in spending Rs 7 crores from the ADB grants on developing an ordinary park, he said.

BJP MLA from Dharamsala, Vishal Nehria, when contacted, said that the name of the park has been changed from Tulip Garden to Dhauladhar Biodiversity Park as the land on which it was being developed was forest land. The nature of it being the forest land the name and nature of Tulip Garden had to be changed, he said.

“We would still try to develop Tulips that can survive in Dharamsala in the bio diversity park,” Nehria said.