It was the middle of the night when the call from a family friend came, warning Abhishek Nautiyal and his family that they had to immediately leave their home in Joshimath, a small Himalayan mountain town in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

The message was simple: Get out — now.

The town was sinking after an influx of water had saturated the soil, and deep cracks had appeared in the walls of more than 800 homes, including the one Nautiyal shared with his sister and mother.

"I was very scared," said Nautiyal, now 18. His grades suffered with the constant worry during the six months he and his family moved to a temporary home, after government officials ordered hundreds of people to leave their residences, considered structurally unsafe, in early January 2023.

"This is my only

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