Three specially trained Indian Army search and rescue dogs, Sara, Opana, and Jansi, played a crucial role in the aftermath of the landslide and cloudburst in Uttarakhand's Harshil sector.

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 Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) said 16 people, including nine Army personnel and seven civilians, are missing.