People during the Chrysanthemum Show 2025 at Lal Chowk, in Srinagar, on October 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI
As winter-like weather patterns wilts flowers and shortens autumn in Kashmir this year, the family of chrysanthemum flowers like ‘Mother Teresa’, ‘Little Pink’, ‘Freedom’, ‘Touching Queen’, etc. has lit up historic Lal Chowk in Srinagar to beat the autumn blues and poor tourist footfall after the Pahalgam attack.
The rare outreach by the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology-Kashmir (SKUAST-K) is aimed at fighting daily life stress of urban life and filling the lean patch of tourism.
“Lal Chowk is an urban place where people mill around all day. The grind of urban life instils stress among people. This outreach is aimed at creating a space that can act as a stress buster. The colours of chrysanthemum flowers are aimed at providing a reason to smile,” said Prof. Nazir Ahmad Ganaie, Vice Chancellor, SKUAST-K.
Hundreds of varieties of chrysanthemum, locally known as Gul-e-Dawood, have decked up the entire stretch of Ghanta Ghar in Lal Chowk. The organisers say the Chrysanthemum Show was also aimed at reviving tourism for autumn too.
“Kashmir has two lean periods of tourism, spring and autumn. The spring season is now bridged by the tulip show and we intend to make autumn also a celebrated event for chrysanthemums,” Mr. Ganaie said.
The SKUAST aims to bring more prominent places of Srinagar under the chrysanthemum flower cover “as a measure to beautify the city fast taken over by urbanisation and depleting green cover”.
According to a SKUAST study, Srinagar’s vegetation was 43.87 sq. km. in 2000 and came down to 26.23 sq. km. by 2020. The dense forest area in Srinagar city was 1.02 sq. km in 2000 and reduced to 0.38 sq. km. by 2020. The extent of open areas in Srinagar city was 131.95 sq. km in 2000 and stood at 124.39 sq. km by 2020, it said.
“The Chrysanthemum Show is an invitation to tourists, locals and students to enjoy the show which shall continue to uplift the spirit of visitors till 20th of November,” said Anshul Garg, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir.
“The Chrysanthemum Show is a great initiative to reach the people, also local farmers. Cut flowers is a big industry and an opportunity for the progressive farmers for income generation. For twenty years Kashmir has been famous for the Tulip season which attracts visitors from across the country and the world. Autumn season is equally colourful and famous in Kashmir as spring, summer or winter,” Mr Garg said.
He said chrysanthemum gardens will be developed at different spots to adorn and beautify the city, which will augment the vibrancy of Srinagar.
Published – October 19, 2025 02:34 am IST
Comments are closed.