Berkeley's Indian community mourns UC Berkeley student Saketh Sreenivasaiah
The Berkeley Indian student community continues to grapple with the loss of Saketh Sreenivasaiah, a 22-year-old master's student in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, whose body was recovered from Lake Anza at Tilden Regional Park earlier this year.
A search that ended at Lake Anza
Sreenivasaiah, a native of Karnataka who had completed his undergraduate degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras before enrolling in the chemical and biomolecular engineering master's program at UC Berkeley, was reported missing on February 12. Berkeley Police said he was last seen on the 1700 block of Dwight Way, near McGee Avenue, and that he had been reportedly upset about a relationship. His backpack, containing his passport and laptop, was found on a doorstep in the Park Hills neighbourhood next to Tilden Regional Park. Police described him as six feet one inch tall, weighing about 160 pounds, with short black hair and brown eyes, and coordinated ongoing search efforts with the East Bay Regional Park District. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco said on X that it was deeply concerned about his disappearance, that it was in touch with the family, and that it was in contact with the concerned local authorities to locate him. [3]
A roommate's warning signs, in hindsight
On February 14, Alameda County Sheriff's Office dive teams recovered Sreenivasaiah's body from Lake Anza at Tilden Regional Park, about a 12-minute drive from campus. The Contra Costa County Coroner's Office confirmed his identity on February 16. His roommate, Baneet Singh, later wrote on LinkedIn that in the two weeks before Sreenivasaiah went missing, he had started eating less and engaging less, only surviving on chips and cookies, warning signs Singh said he missed at the time. Singh recalled a final exchange in which Sreenivasaiah returned from class in a red bathrobe and said, 'I've stopped caring, man. I'm cold and don't care what anyone thinks of me. I don't care about anything.' Singh took the remark as typical silliness. Looking back, he wrote, 'The opposite of life was never death. It was indifference,' adding, 'I didn't expect this from a friend who lived, ate, travelled, laughed and joked with me.' Calling life as an international student tough, Singh worked with authorities to bring Sreenivasaiah's family from India to the U.S. on an emergency visa. [5]
A conversation the community keeps having
Sreenivasaiah's death arrived amid persisting concerns over mental health reporting in Asian and Asian American communities. According to a 2024 study cited in the coverage, suicide is now the leading cause of death among AAPI youth, with rates doubling between 1999 and 2021 and claiming 4,747 lives, yet AAPI individuals remain among the least likely to seek help, a gap researchers have attributed to cultural stigma. For Berkeley's tight-knit Indian student community, his loss remains a call to check in on one another with fresh care. [5]
Sources: [3] Gulf News · [5] nextshark.com