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.

In a large-scale rescue operation, 274 tourists stranded due to flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand’s Gangotri region have been safely evacuated, even as 59 people remain missing. Among those rescued,

Besides locals and tourists, the missing may include labourers as several hotels were under construction at the site of the flash floods