Sanasar Tulips in full bloom but pathetic road irks visitors

Nathatop (J&K), Apr 21:Tulip garden at Sanasar is in full bloom but unfortunately, the visitors are not much keen to visit to this scenic place to have a glimpse of high breed flowers, courtesy, pathetic road condition leading to the destination.
Surrounded by snow clad hills with Nathatop in its backdrop, Tulip Garden in Sanasar area of Ramban district in Jammu and Kashmir waiting for visitors after it was thrown open on April 16 but the tourists including the local population, avoid visiting to the place due to poor road connectivity.
The distance from hill station Patnitop to Sanasar is 19-kilometres via Nathatop, which is 10-kilometres from Patnitop.
The stretch from Patnitop to Nathatop is in good condition but thereafter, completely bad road condition, keeps visitors at bay and they cancel their idea of visiting to Sanasar.
“We have checked in a hotel at Patnitop with a plan to visit Nathatop and Sanasar next day but on seeing the road condition, dropped the idea,” Seema Sexsena—a tourist said.
She expressed that their group will be returning back to Patnitop from Nathatop as they have to reach Jammu by evening to catch train to Delhi, adding, “if we will plan for Sanasar to see the Tulip garden, we will not be able to return on time.”
Another tourist hailing from Jammu rued bad road condition to Sanasar and said, “we came to know about Tulip Garden thrown open for public and planned to visit at the weekend.”
“We had been to the place but it is really a sad state of affair on part of development especially in the places where the government want tourism to flourish,” said Harsh.
He added, “how can tourism get a boost unless there is no road connectivity,” adding, “the government must provide all basic facilities first at the tourist destinations so that inflow of tourists rise manifold, which also boosts economy.”
He added that people have heard about Tulip Garden at Srinagar but many could not get chance to visit the place. “If an initiative has been taken by the government to attract tourists by introducing Tulip Garden at Sanasar then they should first take care of facilities like better roads.”
“As per reports, the scenic Jammu region has emerged as a favourite destination for tourists as more than 1.6 crore tourists have travelled in 2018 to this beautiful region,” said a visitor.
He added that inflow of tourists can further rise in the coming years but the government should seriously focus on boosting tourism of Jammu region by providing all facilities.
As per Floriculture officer, the life of Tulip is very short and by May first week or mid, the bulbs will go.
Meanwhile a senior official of Tourism Department said, "the matter is already taken up with PWD (R&B) department and funds worth crores have also been sanctioned for road construction."
The Tulip Garden in Sanasar is spread in the area of four kanals.
Tulip, which has its origin in Persia (Iran), was introduced in Europe in 17th century, where it had been developed in different varieties. Holland is the largest producer of tulips.