Jaipur Speed Hiker On Mission To Digitally Map India's Invisible Trails
Manvendra Singh Shekhawat plans to map these trails while developing a safe, accessible and responsible hiking culture in the country.
Published : July 7, 2026 at 2:48 PM IST
Jaipur: India’s mountains, rural areas and forests have thousands of undocumented trails that were used for centuries but have never found a place in any official map or guidebook. A Jaipur based speed hiker, trail mapper and outdoor educator has taken the onus on himself to identify these ‘invisible trails’ digitally. Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, also known as Manav, plans to map these trails while developing a safe, accessible and responsible hiking culture in India.
His own journey is something straight out of an adventure film. He has ascended the nearly 400 m (~1,300 ft) high volcanic cliffs of Maharashtra's Sahyadri Hills without any safety railing, tracing ancient footprints etched in stones and using iron pegs set centuries ago for support. It takes him up to four hours to cover a distance of just over a mile.
After a grueling day's trek, he gets down to clearing Global Positioning System (GPS) tracks, updating field notes, syncing terrain data and planning the next day's journey. For him, the jungle and mountains are life and work. He told ETV Bharat that he has covered nearly 2,000 km in 70 days.
Manav studied Electronics Engineering and began preparing for the civil services exams, when a growing fascination for the mountains steered him towards a completely new direction. He abandoned his civil service dreams, trained in mountaineering and started a trekking club with friends in Hyderabad.
It was there that he realised that long-distance treks were possible with lightweight gear. With just a 10-litre daypack, he began completing four-day treks in a single day. This experience later became the foundation for his trail mapping mission.
Mission: A Hiking Field Course
Manav founded the Hiking Field Course, which is considered India's first independently-run weeklong outdoor training programme where participants are provided with practical training in navigation, camping, route planning, wilderness safety, weather understanding and emergency response.
He believes that while Indians love nature, they lack the necessary skills to safely explore the forests and mountains. His goal is to empower people to become self-reliant and responsible hikers.
Over the last decade, he has hiked over 14,000 km across India, Nepal and Indonesia. He has digitally recorded nearly 5,000 km of these trails on OpenStreetMap. He has also created detailed maps of approximately 20 high altitude lakes and 21 mountain peaks over 6,000 m high in Ladakh and Lahaul regions. These digital maps could prove extremely useful for future hikers, researchers and rescue teams.
Manav said, “There are thousands of trails in India that have been used by rural communities for centuries. These paths were created for collecting wood, grazing cattle, religious pilgrimages and movement between villages. They could become India's largest hiking network in future. Unlike in Western countries, India doesn't have clear boundaries between front country and back country. Here, the living trails connecting villages are the true trail system.”
Online Trail Mapping Community
Back in 2023, Manav, along with his friend Shubhrank Mukhiya, founded HikeX, an online community that promotes trail mapping, outdoor education and safe hiking. The HikeX team records GPS tracks of any trail along with water sources, camping spots, shelters, danger spots and other important information along the way. A crucial part of this process is interacting with the local people. Elders and experienced village herders often provide information about routes not listed on any map.
Manav revealed, “Many of India's historic trails face a dual challenge. On one hand, roads are being built over them, while on the other, rural populations are migrating to cities. When people stop traveling on these trails, they gradually become overgrown with forests and disappear forever. Documenting these trails is the need of the hour.”
HikeX has launched its most ambitious project to date named the ‘Epic Sahyadri Trail’ (EST). This approximately 2,033 km long trail runs parallel to the Sahyadri mountains of Maharashtra along the Arabian Sea coast. It connects the biodiversity of the Western Ghats, dense monsoon forests, volcanic rocks, waterfalls and historic forts from the Maratha period. Manav completed the entire route in just 70 days, climbing a total altitude of 93,288 metres which he describes as equivalent to climbing from sea level to the summit of Everest every week.
Although the EST sounds extremely challenging, it's not just for experienced adventurers. The entire route is divided into 11 sections and 40 stages so that even beginners in hiking can complete it in smaller chunks according to their ability. HikeX is also developing an online expedition platform which will provide trail notes, potential hazards, audio guides, detailed route maps and a free 40-part walkthrough series.
Making Epic Sahyadri Trail India's Largest Homestay Trek
Manav dreams of the EST becoming India's largest homestay trek where hikers will be able to stay in a village each evening, sample local cuisine and resume their journey the next day. This will foster new economic activities in villages, including homestays, local guides, food and transportation. Travelers will also have the opportunity to experience the local culture, dialect, cuisine, traditional homes and rural life.
Manav believes that trail mapping isn't limited to tourism. In the event of an accident on a trail, digital mapping allows rescue teams to quickly reach the exact location. Trail mapping can also become a strong foundation for future disaster management and rescue systems. For this, he is preparing a new generation of trail mappers across the country through his training programs.
Along with his team, he wants the EST to be designated a National Tourism Heritage Site, similar to the National Scenic Trails System in the United States. The team believes that if this model is implemented across India, a trail network of thousands of kilometres could develop across the country, giving a new identity to adventure tourism, rural employment, environmental conservation and local culture. They believe that India has no shortage of nature. The only need is to identify, protect, and expose to the world those paths that people have traveled for centuries, which yet remain missing from most of the maps.
