Uttarakhand, the mountainous northern state that hosts Dharali, has been devastated by cloudbursts before. A June 2013 cloudburst killed over 6,000 people in Uttarakhand and surrounding states, becoming the country's worst natural disaster in ten years. In 2021, flash flooding triggered by a cloudburst killed over 200.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told a local news outlet at least 190 people have been rescued. “The disaster has completely hit the entire Dharali,

Flash floods have swept away homes and shops in northern India, killing at least four people and trapping many others under debris.