Days after a young software employee, Advait Upadhyay from Bengaluru, headed out alone to climb Shivagange Hill and never returned, a rescue operation including local police, forest personnel, and overhead drones is still searching the slopes of the hill. The incident has rattled the city’s hiking community and raised worries about the safety of solo trekkers in the hills around Bengaluru.
- Advait Upadhyay, 31, went missing after starting a solo trek at Shivagange Hill on August 7.
- CCTV footage reportedly showed him beginning the climb at about 7.30 am.
- His motorcycle was found at the foothills, while his phone was later switched off.
- Police, forest officials, SDRF personnel and drone teams are involved in the search.
- An object spotted near Shantala Drop remains unconfirmed and should not be treated as an identification.
- Rain and difficult terrain have complicated the rescue operation.
The Man in the Middle of the Hunt
The individual being sought is Advait Upadhyay, 31, of Maitri Layout locality of Kadugodi in East Bengaluru. He is an engineering graduate from IIT and a post-graduate in cybersecurity. He has been working for the last many years at a financial firm in Whitefield. He was from Indore in Madhya Pradesh but had made Bengaluru his home, and everyone agreed he was doing well, with a wedding to look forward to in January.
How the Day Unfolded
Advait Upadhyay had leased a motorbike in Whitefield a week before he went missing. On the morning in question, a Friday, he took his bike for the roughly 50-kilometre ride out to Shivagange, a hill near Nelamangala on the outskirts of the city that reaches over 4,500 feet.
Security cameras near the bottom of the slope captured his arrival on the motorbike and departure on foot somewhere about 7 in the morning. He was not covert about the plan – he had told his fiancée Prapti Chauhan what he was about to accomplish that day and had sent her a picture of himself halfway up the climb. What no one has found is any trace of his making his way back down. No camera saw him coming down, and a little while after he started walking, his phone stopped functioning totally.
Once it became evident something was amiss, Prapti rushed to the Kadugodi police station and lodged an official missing person’s report. Officers eventually found his rental motorbike at the bottom of the hill where he had left it, confirming that he had gone ahead with the ascent. A police complaint has been registered, and staff from Dobbaspet and Nelamangala police stations have joined the search along with disaster response teams to find him.
A Difficult Terrain to Search
Shivagange attracts a significant number of pilgrims and hikers, although calling it beginner-friendly would be inaccurate. Some portions are tight with stairs cut directly into the rock, sharp cliffs, and thickets that make it hard to see where you are going. One portion in particular, known locally as the Shantala Drop, is deemed exceptionally perilous and has been a focus of the search teams’ efforts.
Adding a twist to the case, authorities believe that the last position pinged by Advait’s phone does not fit into the route most hikers follow to climb the peak. That mismatch leaves search coordinators unsure which direction he took once he was out of camera range, requiring them to expand the territory they are scouring. Drones now fly over mountainous or densely forested sections that are hard for search parties to get to on foot, while investigators work independently via call logs, film and other digital evidence to put together his final moves.
Not the First Such Case
This isn’t the first time a solo hiker in the area has gone missing in recent times. In April, 36-year-old IT professional GS Sharanya from Kerala went missing while trekking solo up Tadiandamol Peak in Kodagu district. She was later found safe, but her incident opened up a wider conversation over whether the risks of solo trekking on remote trails are worth it. The hazard, veteran hikers often warn, is the lack of a safety net if something goes wrong, and that danger increases during monsoon season when the routes turn treacherous, and fog may swallow a track in minutes.
As of now, the quest for Advait Upadhyay is still on, with no definite breakthrough. This is a developing, dynamic scenario and more information is expected to be released as police continue their investigation.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who is missing after the Shivagange trek?
Advait Upadhyay, a 31-year-old software professional who lives in Bengaluru, has been reported missing after going on a solo trek to Shivagange Hill.
2. When did Advait Upadhyay go missing?
He was reported missing on Friday, August 7, 2026, after he failed to return from the trek and could not be contacted.
3. What do authorities know so far?
His rental motorbike was located parked at the bottom of the hill, and CCTV shows him beginning the ascent, but there’s no evidence of him coming back down, and the last position on his phone doesn’t fit the normal path.
4. Has Advait Upadhyay been found?
As of August 11, authorities had not publicly confirmed that he had been found. A drone reportedly detected an object resembling a body, but its identity had not been established.
5. Why is the Shivagange search difficult?
The hill has steep cliffs, narrow steps, rocky surfaces and thick vegetation. Heavy rain has further increased the danger and slowed rescue teams’ movement.
6. Have there been similar missing-trekker cases recently?
Yes — in April, a Kerala-based software worker went missing while walking solo on Tadiandamol Peak in Kodagu and was subsequently found safe, an occurrence that had previously raised concerns about the perils of solo mountaineering.
Sources
- The Indian Express: Bengaluru techie goes missing on Shivagange trek
- The News Minute: 31-year-old IT professional missing after Shivagange trek
- NDTV: Bengaluru techie missing on solo trek
