Every fact on Kashmir Almanac comes from a source we name and date on the page: official notices first, then established news outlets, then clearly labelled operator price lists. We do not visit places to check them, and we don’t write as if we had. Each guide shows the date it was last checked, and time-sensitive facts such as closures, prices and road status are re-checked on a schedule.
Where our facts come from
- Official sources first: government notifications and orders, the India Meteorological Department’s station records (through the WMO 1991–2020 climate normals), the Ministry of Tourism’s Incredible India pages, and official operators such as the J&K Cable Car Corporation.
- Established news outlets for orders and announcements we can’t read directly, named and dated on the page.
- Operator price lists only when no official rate exists, always labelled as operator prices, with the date.
When sources disagree, we say so and show both rather than quietly picking one. Every guide ends with a numbered list of its sources.
How we date things
- Each guide shows “Checked” and a date under its headline.
- Closures, fares and season facts carry their own source date in the text.
- Closures under orders that run to 31 December 2026 will be re-checked between 2 and 9 January 2027. Until then, treat any row past its validity date as unconfirmed.
When a guide gives a place’s status, these words mean:
- Closed: on the official list of closed tourist destinations as on 7 July 2026. A trek or place that isn’t on the list is called closed only when a dated report we name says so.
- Reopening ordered: a reopening order was reported, and we give its date; we found no later report on the place.
- Open: reported open, with the date of the report.
- Unclear: reports conflict.
Road times
Drive times come from the Go Kashmir app’s own road-time model, which adjusts a public road-routing dataset for hill roads. We show them as ranges, label them as estimates and give the date. They are not measured drives: traffic, snow and roadworks can change them.
Weather figures
Monthly averages are the WMO Climate Normals for 1991–2020 for the IMD stations at Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam, as published by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. They describe a typical year, not a forecast.
Photographs
The photographs come from Wikimedia Commons, used under the licences named in each caption and on the photo credits page. We do not use AI-generated images.
How AI is used
Guides are researched and drafted with an AI model (Claude). Every fact is then checked against the source cited on the page before publishing. The check is a separate AI fact-check pass that re-reads each cited source and records the result in a fact log. Abbsar Bhat oversees the site but does not verify facts on the ground. We never publish a fact we could not trace to a source.
What we don’t do
- We don’t claim personal visits or first-hand experience unless the author has them and says so.
- We don’t give safety or security verdicts. For travel advisories, read your government’s current advice.
- We don’t take payment from hotels, taxi operators or tour companies to appear in our guides.
Who makes Kashmir Almanac
Kashmir Almanac is made by Abbsar Bhat, who lives in Kashmir and builds the Go Kashmir app. Every guide links to the app because it shows the same kind of dated information, such as closures, seasons and road-time estimates, for each place. About the author.
Found a mistake?
Kashmir Almanac doesn’t have a public contact address yet. When we find a mistake, we check it against the source, correct the page and give it a new “Checked” date.