In a major initiative aimed at diversifying Ladakh’s biodiversity, enhancing farmers’ incomes and creating new livelihood opportunities through floriculture, Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Monday laid the foundation stone for two high-altitude flower fields in Leh, which will be the first such projects in the country.
The projects, as per an official statement, envisage creating two Flower fields at Choglamsar and Stakna in Leh. The Choglamsar Park is spread over an area of 92,687 square metres, and the Floriculture Project at the School of Agriculture Science and Technology, University of Ladakh, Stakna, is spread over 1.02 lakh square metres of land.
The Flower Garden at Choglamsar is being developed as one of the largest organised high-altitude floriculture parks in the country and is the first project of its kind in Ladakh. The project assumes special significance, as the idea originated during the Lieutenant Governor’s visit to the site on April 7, 2026, when he had directed that the area be developed as a dedicated floriculture park.
The Choglamsar flower park will serve as a demonstration and model floriculture centre where high-value flowers such as Lilium, Gladiolus, Tulips and other ornamental species with strong market demand in national and international markets will be cultivated. The garden will also function as a recreational and educational space for residents and tourists alike.
Under the project, for the first time, farmers will be trained in Floriculture, and later on, these fields will be handed over to them for commercial utilisation through the cooperatives.
The Floriculture Project at Stakna has been conceived as a livelihood-generation and economic-diversification initiative. The project aims to establish a model floriculture centre for promoting scientific flower cultivation in Ladakh and will focus on producing premium-quality cut flowers for marketing in metropolitan cities and other markets across the country.
On the occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Department of Agriculture, UT Ladakh, and the CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, under which scientific and technical support will be provided for the projects. The collaboration will facilitate the promotion of scientific floriculture in Ladakh through the introduction of modern technologies, capacity-building programmes, demonstration activities, development of floriculture infrastructure and identification of suitable floriculture crops for Ladakh’s unique climatic conditions.
Speaking on the occasion, LG Saxena said that the floriculture projects represent far more than the cultivation of flowers and mark the beginning of a new vision for Ladakh’s development, combining economic growth with environmental sustainability and tourism promotion.