We would rather address this directly than have you find a three-year-old headline on your own and wonder what it means for your trip. In January 2023, Joshimath made national news for a genuinely serious reason — cracks appeared in hundreds of homes and buildings across several wards of the town, ground subsidence was confirmed by multiple expert teams, families were evacuated, and for a period the town was declared a disaster-affected zone. This is not something we are going to gloss over or bury in a footnote. It happened, it was significant, and if you are planning a visit to Joshimath, you deserve a straight answer about what it means for you now.

This guide explains what actually happened, what investigations found about the causes, what has happened in the years since, and what we honestly recommend you do to get a current, accurate picture before your visit — because a 2023 news article, however accurate at the time, is not the same as knowing the situation today.

This guide covers what happened in January 2023, what investigations identified as contributing causes, what has happened since, and practical guidance for getting an accurate, current picture before you travel.

What Happened in January 2023

Starting in early January 2023, residents across several wards of Joshimath began reporting visible cracks in the walls, floors and foundations of their homes, some of which widened significantly over a short period. As the scale of the damage became clear, the Uttarakhand government declared Joshimath a landslide- and subsidence-affected area, evacuated hundreds of families from the worst-affected buildings, and set up relief camps and temporary housing. The affected area was concentrated in specific wards of the town rather than uniformly spread across all of Joshimath — a distinction that matters and that a lot of the initial national coverage did not always make clearly.

What Caused It

Multiple expert teams and committees — including geologists, engineers and disaster management authorities — examined the causes, and the honest picture is that this was not attributed to a single, simple cause. Contributing factors identified across various assessments included the fact that Joshimath sits on old landslide and glacial moraine debris rather than solid bedrock, a geological reality that has been known and documented since at least the 1970s; decades of construction, including multi-storey buildings, without adequate geotechnical assessment for this kind of ground; drainage and sewage seepage into the soil, which weakens loose debris slopes over time; and significant public scrutiny and debate over the role of nearby infrastructure projects, including NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydropower tunnel and the Joshimath bypass road construction, both of which were investigated as possible contributing factors, though the extent of their specific contribution relative to the other factors was, and to some extent remains, a matter of expert and public debate rather than settled consensus.

What It Means for Visitors

Here is what we can say with confidence: the affected areas identified in 2023 were specific residential wards, not the entire town, and Joshimath has continued to function as the gateway to Badrinath, Auli, Kuari Pass, Pangarchulla and the other trekking and pilgrimage routes that pass through it in the years since. The Char Dham yatra has continued to operate through the region each season, and Auli’s cable car and ski season have continued to draw visitors. That said, “the town continued to function” is a different claim from “every part of the town is confirmed structurally safe today,” and we are not going to blur that distinction for the sake of a cleaner marketing message.

Our honest recommendation is this: before you book, ask directly — us, or any accommodation you are considering — about the current status of the specific area you would be staying in, and do not rely solely on general reassurance. Ask what monitoring or official clearance applies to that property and area. A operator or property with nothing to hide will answer this directly and specifically, and one that deflects the question is not the one to book with.

Things to Do

Ask direct, specific questions before you book. Which ward or area is the property in, has it been assessed since 2023, and what is the current official status of that specific area — not a general reassurance about the town as a whole.

Check current official sources close to your travel dates. Uttarakhand state government and disaster management authority updates, rather than a 2023 news article, are the right source for current status.

Understand the geography of what was actually affected. The 2023 crisis was concentrated in specific residential wards, not uniformly across the entire town, Auli, or the trekking routes beyond it — but this is not a substitute for checking current status of the specific area relevant to your trip.

Things Not to Do

Assume the entire town is unstable based on 2023 coverage alone, without checking what has happened in the years since.

Assume everything has been fully resolved without checking, simply because the town has continued to function and receive visitors. Continued operation and confirmed current safety are not automatically the same thing.

Rely on a single source, old or new, without cross-checking. This is a topic where getting a current, official picture matters more than usual.

A Few Misconceptions Worth Correcting

That the whole town was sinking uniformly. The affected areas were specific wards with particular geological and construction characteristics, not the entirety of Joshimath.

That this is a problem unique to Joshimath. Unplanned construction on unstable Himalayan terrain, combined with drainage issues and infrastructure development pressure, is a risk shared by numerous hill towns across the Himalayan region — Joshimath became the most visible example, not necessarily the only vulnerable one.

How We Approach This Honestly

Blackberry Cottages & Resort is at Auli Laga, Joshimath. If you ask us directly about the current status of our specific location and the areas we recommend to guests, we will give you a straight, current answer rather than a general one — and we would rather lose a booking to an honest answer than gain one through vague reassurance.

For current, specific information about our location and the areas we recommend, contact us directly at blackberrycottagesauli.com or on WhatsApp — ask us anything.