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.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday said that 274 persons have been rescued in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district following flash floods. The floods and landslides on Tuesday triggered by intense rainfall had destroyed homes, swept away residents and livestock and cut off access to several villages.