Dharali, a mountain village located at 2,540m in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, was suddenly swept away today at noon. A violent cloudburst flooded the Kheerganga River. (Some sources spell it Khir Ganga.) Some people were reported dead, and rescuers fear dozens more may be trapped.
As the wall of water approached, neighbors on high ground tried to shout and whistle to warn Dharali’s inhabitants. They also filmed the flood’s horrifying impact. People moving away from the flood are suddenly engulfed by the water and the collapsed buildings.
ताश के पत्तो की तरह घर गिर रहे हैं. भयानक वीडियो है. पूरा गांव मलबे से पट गया. pic.twitter.com/mmpNhj3jxt
— Ranvijay Singh (@ranvijaylive) August 5, 2025
Dharali is just 10 kilometers from Harsil, a popular tourism area in the Uttarkashi district, and not far from the pilgrimage center of Gangotri. The flood has swept away restaurants, houses, and hotels. The part of the village on the inside bend of the river escaped most of the damage, while the other side of the village was largely destroyed.
“The sludge from Kheerganga has blocked a part of the region’s main river…and created a lake where 24 hours before were fields and a helipad, the BBC reported.
Indian Express reports that today’s disaster is the latest extreme weather event to strike the mountainous state in recent years, particularly during the monsoon. The paper mentioned five major cloudbursts followed by flooding since 2022.
