The Char Dham Yatra is suspended. The Uttarakhand government halted the pilgrimage from the afternoon of Saturday, 26 September 2026 until Sunday, 27 September, after the India Meteorological Department issued red and orange rainfall warnings across the state. The same order covers the Hemkund Sahib yatra and all adventure trekking. As of 2:00 pm IST on Sunday, 27 September 2026, the suspension had not been publicly lifted, a fresh red alert was in force for Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri and Haridwar, and the Badrinath–Rishikesh national highway was blocked by rock and debris in Pauri Garhwal.
If you are travelling in Uttarakhand this week, the short version is that movement on the yatra routes is restricted by administrative order, not only by bad weather, and that order is being reviewed day by day. Here is exactly what was directed, which districts sit under which alert, and what it changes for a trip planned over the next few weeks.
Status at a glance — 27 September 2026
- Suspended: Char Dham Yatra (Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath), the Hemkund Sahib yatra and adventure trekking, from the afternoon of 26 September until 27 September.
- Ordered by: Garhwal Commissioner Anand Swaroop.
- Review point: restrictions hold “until Sunday evening or until the weather returns to normal”, per State Disaster Management Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman.
- IMD, 27 September: red alert for Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri and Haridwar; very heavy to extremely heavy rain forecast over Uttarakhand.
- Roads: the Badrinath–Rishikesh National Highway was blocked at around 8 am on Sunday near the Sirobagarh stretch in Pauri Garhwal.
- Himachal Pradesh: rain forecast to continue until 29 September; the season’s first snowfall fell in Kinnaur on 26 September.
What was actually ordered
This was a formal administrative suspension, not a weather advisory. According to an order issued by Garhwal Commissioner Anand Swaroop, the Char Dham Yatra was suspended from the afternoon of 26 September until 27 September to protect pilgrims on the route. The Uttarakhand government extended the same restriction to the Hemkund Sahib pilgrimage and to adventure trekking across the state.
State Disaster Management Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman set out the reasoning and the review point: “The pilgrimages will remain suspended until Sunday evening or until the weather returns to normal. We hope conditions will improve by Sunday evening, after which the Char Dham Yatra can resume.” He noted that weather had been relatively clear until Saturday afternoon but that much heavier rain was expected from the evening, with sustained rainfall likely around Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
Worth noting for anyone reading older coverage: at a review meeting on Friday, Garhwal division officials had initially decided not to suspend the yatra, planning instead to hold pilgrims at designated safe points if onward travel became unsafe. The wider suspension was ordered only after the weather outlook worsened on Saturday. The Adi Kailash yatra was halted as well.
Schools up to Class 12 were closed as a precaution in Bageshwar, Pithoragarh, Champawat, Nainital and Rudraprayag. As of Saturday evening, officials reported no casualties or major damage in Uttarakhand.
IMD alerts: 26 and 27 September 2026
The alert map shifted overnight, which matters because the districts under the heaviest warning on Sunday are the ones carrying the main approach roads from Haridwar and Rishikesh.
| Alert level | Saturday 26 September | Sunday 27 September |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Bageshwar, Pithoragarh, Champawat, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar | Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri, Haridwar |
| Orange | Dehradun, Pauri, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Almora | Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Nainital, Rudraprayag |
| Yellow | Haridwar, Uttarkashi, Tehri | Bageshwar, Almora, Champawat, Udham Singh Nagar, Pithoragarh |
On the morning of 27 September the IMD carried a red warning for very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning over Uttarakhand, and heavy to very heavy rainfall over Himachal Pradesh and west Uttar Pradesh. Thunderstorm and lightning conditions were also forecast over Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and the Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh region. The driver is an active western disturbance interacting with residual monsoon moisture, which is also why rain has returned to the plains after the monsoon had begun retreating.
Roads and access right now
The single most disruptive development on Sunday was on the Badrinath–Rishikesh National Highway. At around 8 am, rocks and debris came down from the hillside and blocked the road near the Sirobagarh stretch in Pauri Garhwal, leaving a large number of vehicles carrying pilgrims stranded on both sides. Srinagar (Pauri Garhwal) police increased vigilance on vulnerable stretches and asked commuters to halt at safe locations and not move forward until the stretch was cleared.
The Rudraprayag district administration was placed on high alert and has asked pilgrims to stop where they are, stay at safe locations, and wait for road and weather conditions to improve before continuing. Pilgrims were still reaching Kedarnath Dham despite the rain, but onward and upward movement is exactly what the administration is trying to slow down.
Two practical points a ground operator would add. First, a blocked Himalayan highway is usually a clearing exercise measured in hours, not days, once machinery reaches it and the rain eases — but a second slide on the same stretch is common while the hillside is saturated, so one reopening is not the end of it. Second, helicopter movement on the Kedarnath sector is weather-dependent by definition; low cloud grounds sorties regardless of what the road is doing, so a heli booking is not a workaround for a rain day.
Himachal Pradesh: rain to 29 September, first snow in Kinnaur
Himachal is under the same weather system but a much lighter version of it. The Shimla Met centre has forecast continuous rain across the state until 29 September, after which intensity is expected to drop. For 27 September it issued an orange alert for Sirmaur, with heavy rain, thunderstorms and lightning likely at isolated places, and yellow alerts for Shimla, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Solan, Bilaspur and Sirmaur.
The more interesting development for anyone planning a winter trip is that the higher reaches of Kinnaur recorded the season’s first snowfall on 26 September, in the Kuno Charang area under Pooh tehsil, while the rest of the district got rain. Shimla and Dharamshala saw light rain. Kukumseri in Lahaul and Spiti was the coldest place in the state at 5.3 degrees Celsius. The Met office expects light rain to continue in the middle hills, with the plains, low hills and high hills staying dry until 2 October.
Late-September snow in Kinnaur is early but not extraordinary. It does not mean the Spiti circuit is closing, and it is far too early to read it as a signal about the winter season. It does mean that anyone heading above roughly 3,500 metres in the next fortnight should be carrying warm layers they were not planning to pack. The same caution we apply to travel in Himachal during the monsoon — stay in the valleys, keep away from swollen rivers, treat the high passes as conditional — still applies this week.
What this means for your trip
If you are already on the yatra route
Follow the district administration, not your itinerary. The instruction from Rudraprayag and Pauri Garhwal is explicit: halt at a safe location and do not push forward. Driving at night on a saturated hillside to make up lost time is the single worst decision available this week. Budget a rest day rather than a night drive, keep your phone charged, and tell your hotel or operator where you have stopped so somebody knows your position. Uttarakhand’s Tourist Care helpline is 1364, and the state also runs a control-room line on 0135 3520100.
If you are due to travel in the next three to five days
Do not cancel yet, but do build slack. The yatra window runs well into the autumn and this is a weather pause, not a season closure. What a suspension of this kind really costs you is sequencing: a two-day halt compresses everything behind it, and the Yamunotri and Kedarnath trek legs are the first to get squeezed. If your plan has zero buffer days, add one now, before the roads reopen and the backlog moves. A standard Char Dham Yatra itinerary is tight by design, so a single spare day is usually the difference between finishing all four dhams and dropping one.
Check your registration as well. Char Dham and Hemkund Sahib registration runs through the Uttarakhand government portal, and your travel dates need to match what you actually intend to do once the schedule shifts.
If you are booked for October
You are very likely fine. This is a western disturbance passing through the tail of the monsoon, and the Himachal forecast already points to drier conditions from around 2 October. October is normally the most stable stretch of the autumn yatra season. If you are still deciding where to go rather than whether to travel, our note on where the monsoon has actually withdrawn and where to travel in October covers which parts of the country have cleared and which have not. For trips built around the rest of Uttarakhand — Nainital, Corbett, Mussoorie, Rishikesh — the lower-altitude circuits recover from a spell like this far faster than the high yatra routes.
If you are on the route now and need help re-sequencing a booked itinerary, our Uttarakhand operations desk is on 7087488961.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Char Dham Yatra open today?
As of the afternoon of 27 September 2026 the yatra remains under the suspension order issued on 26 September, which was set to run until 27 September. The state said it would resume once conditions were safe, and no resumption had been publicly confirmed at the time of writing. Check the district administration or the Uttarakhand tourism portal before you set out.
Why was the Char Dham Yatra suspended?
Because the IMD issued red and orange rainfall warnings across Uttarakhand for 26 and 27 September. The Garhwal Commissioner ordered the suspension to keep pilgrims off exposed hill routes during the alert window. It was a precautionary decision taken before conditions deteriorated.
Does the suspension cover Hemkund Sahib and trekking?
Yes. The Uttarakhand government suspended the Hemkund Sahib pilgrimage and adventure trekking under the same order. The Adi Kailash yatra was halted as well.
Is the Badrinath highway open?
It was blocked by rocks and debris near Sirobagarh in Pauri Garhwal at around 8 am on 27 September, with vehicles stranded on both sides. Clearing work on this kind of blockage is usually measured in hours once rain eases, but repeat slides are common while the slope is saturated. Confirm the current position with the local police or your operator rather than assuming a reopening holds.
Should I cancel my Char Dham trip?
Not on the basis of a two-day weather suspension. The yatra season continues through the autumn and these pauses are a normal feature of it. The sensible response is to add a buffer day and keep your plans flexible, rather than to cancel or to try to make up lost time by travelling at night.
Is it snowing in Himachal Pradesh already?
The higher reaches of Kinnaur recorded the season’s first snowfall on 26 September 2026, in the Kuno Charang area of Pooh tehsil. That is early-season snow at high altitude only. Shimla, Manali and the popular valley destinations had rain, not snow, and the Met office expects conditions to dry out from around 2 October.
Sources
- News On Air (Prasar Bharati), 27 September 2026 — IMD red alert for Uttarakhand
- The Tribune / PTI, 26 September 2026 — district-wise alerts and the Garhwal Commissioner order
- The New Indian Express, 26 September 2026 — State Disaster Management Secretary on the review point
- ANI, 27 September 2026 — Badrinath–Rishikesh highway blocked at Sirobagarh
- The Tribune / PTI, 26 September 2026 — Himachal forecast and first snowfall in Kinnaur
- Uttarakhand Tourism — official Char Dham and Hemkund Sahib registration portal
- India Meteorological Department — current warnings
This page reflects the official position as of 2:00 pm IST on Sunday, 27 September 2026. Weather-related restrictions in the hills change quickly. Always confirm the current status with the district administration or the Uttarakhand tourism portal before travelling.
