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.

The Indian Army and other forces were helping with the rescue, officials said. The flood’s full death toll may be higher, with so many missing.

Rescuers are scouring a devastated Himalayan village in northern India's Uttarakhand state to find missing people, a day after flash floods killed at least four and left many others trapped under debris.