New Delhi, Aug. 7 -- Vikram Mubayi, an Indian-origin doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), was found dead after he went missing during a solo hiking trip in California's Big Pine Lakes area, authorities have confirmed.

Mubayi, a PhD student in UCSB's Department of Chemical Engineering, had travelled to the popular hiking destination in the eastern Sierra Nevada over the weekend. His disappearance prompted an extensive search after he failed to return as planned and stopped communicating with his family.

According to the student publication Daily Nexus, authorities recovered Mubayi's body from the Big Pine Lakes area on 3 August. Officials have not disclosed the circumstances under which he entered the w...