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.

A flash flood swept through a village in the Himalayas in northern India on Tuesday. At least 50 people are missing and four are dead, with the toll expected to rise. 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,” said Dhami.

Nearly 200 people were rescued from Dharali, a remote mountainous village in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand state, after a cloudburst on Tuesday triggered mudslides and flash flooding in the Kheer Ganga river.