Joshimath

Perched high above the confluence of the Alakananda and Dhauliganga rivers, Joshimath is a picturesque and religiously significant town in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India. Built on unstable glacial debris and landslide-prone slopes, its vulnerability has long been recognized—however, a sudden land subsidence in January 2023 that forced hundreds to evacuate brought the gravity of the crisis into full view.

Though geological instability had been an ongoing concern, the calamity marked a turning point. In recent years, the Himalayan region has also experienced increasingly intense and erratic rainfall. Government-sponsored reports later cited aggressive tourism and inadequate drainage systems for rain, melting snow, and sewage among key contributors. Authorities have demarcated zones at risk of further collapse and urged residents to relocate. Yet many remain—tied by their roots, and economic dependency. They go about their daily lives knowing the ground beneath them could sink again. Joshimath’s story reflects the silent human toll of environmental negligence in fragile mountain ecosystems—an unfolding crisis buried not just in soil, but in the psyche of its people.

A year after the disaster, I visited the town to find many homes abandoned, standing as ghostly reminders of a lingering trauma.