SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday felicitated 12 winners of painting, photography and Instagram reel competitions organised during the Tulip Show and Badamwari Spring Festival, praising their creative efforts to showcase Kashmir’s iconic gardens.
The winners, including several students from government schools, were presented cash prizes and certificates at a ceremony held in Srinagar.
The competitions were organised by the Floriculture Department across three categories, with prizes awarded for the first, second and third positions.
In the Tulip Festival 2026 painting competition, Farhan Ali Bhat, Soleha Tanveer and Roja Fayaz secured the top three positions. In the Badamwari Almond Festival 2026 painting competition, Ahmreen Bashir, Mir Maryam Zaffar and Hanzala Shafiq emerged as the winners.
Salman Ahmad Wani, Shazeeb Iqbal and Ayush Anand secured the first three positions in the Instagram Reel Competition held during the Tulip Show 2026.
In the photography category, Umair Wani, Saba Reshi and Sharafat Khan bagged the first, second and third positions, respectively.
Omar said the competitions were intended to encourage creativity among students and young people while drawing greater attention to Jammu and Kashmir’s floral attractions through social media and other contemporary platforms.
He said Badamwari and the Tulip Garden had emerged as major attractions on the annual floriculture calendar, while the newly introduced Chrysanthemum Festival had also received encouraging public participation.
The Chief Minister said painting provided young artists an opportunity to capture the beauty of Kashmir’s gardens on canvas, while photography and Instagram reels helped take the visual appeal of these destinations to a wider audience.
He encouraged more students to participate in such competitions in the future, saying the initiatives brought together creativity, technology and tourism promotion while providing young talent with a platform to express itself.
Later, Omar inspected the award-winning paintings and viewed the photographs and Instagram reels submitted by the participants.
Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister Dheeraj Gupta, Commissioner Secretary Floriculture, Parks and Gardens Zubair Ahmed, Director Floriculture Kashmir Mathora Masoom and other officials, besides awardees, participants and media persons, were present at the event.
