Lack of tourists, business hit Auli hard

The tourist places in the Joshimath area of Uttrakhand are lying empty due to landslides and big cracks in hotels. Auli, a very famous tourist place located 12 kilometres above Joshimath, is visited by people from all over the world.

But due to the calamity in Joshimath on January 2, land started sinking and several hundred houses and hotels in Joshimath sustained huge cracks and landslides that occurred at many places. Seeing the condition of the houses, the administration had got all those hotels and houses vacated in minimum time.

Tourism is the only major source of livelihood in Uttarakhand. But the manner in which the disaster occurred in Joshimath itself, there has been a huge decline in the number of tourists visiting the surrounding areas. Fear has settled in their mind that when this kind of situation prevails in Joshimath and Auli, Landslides can also happen in the nearby areas and their lives can also be in danger, that is why tourists are avoiding going to famous places like Auli.

In such a situation, all the hotels, restaurants, guides working here, owners of small shops and even horse riders are very worried. They said that due to the cracks and landslides in the houses in Joshimath, tourists are not coming to spend their holidays here.

Pankaj Bansal and Ajay Bhatt, who run hotels in Auli, said that thousands of tourists used to visit here and advance booking of hotels used to take place, but this time people are getting their bookings cancelled. It has to be said that whenever a disaster strikes, the hoteliers are the first to be hit. Since 2 years, covid has damaged the hotel business and now this disaster has broken the back of the business and now they expect the government to help the hotel owners Will be of some help.

People come to Auli to enjoy skiing, but this time there is not much snow, even if there is a little snow, people are not coming to visit here due to fear. It is said that due to the Joshimath incident, people are not coming to visit the place and the crisis of unemployment has arisen in front of them.

Small shops are just waiting for customers. The small or big restaurants are all lying empty. Santosh Rana, who runs a small tea shop in Auli, says that he has been running the shop here for the last several years, but this time everything is empty.

However, the government is also trying its best to resettle everything as soon as possible so that the tourists should be brought back again and the tourism business can flourish again in Auli.

( With inputs from ANI )