Meet Lieutenant Colonel Gaurav Solanki: 12 Para SF Officer Who Gave His Life Trying to Save a Fellow Soldier

Lieutenant Colonel Gaurav Solanki, Sena Medal, of 12 Para (Special Forces), was 37 years old when he died on 8 September 2019 in Lake Kivu, near Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was serving as a military staff officer with the Indian contingent of the United Nations peacekeeping mission. His body was recovered four days later, on 12 September. Contemporaneous Army accounts and family statements agree on the essential fact: he entered the water to help a fellow officer and did not return.

The episode occurred weeks before he was due to return to India to assume command of his battalion. It closed a career that had already included a decade of service in Jammu and Kashmir, operations that earned him the Sena Medal (Gallantry), and selection for one of the Army’s most demanding Special Forces units.

Formation: Delhi, NDA, and Commission

Solanki was from Delhi. He studied at Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, and represented the school in cricket and tennis. In 2000 he entered the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla. He passed out in December 2002 as Squadron Cadet Captain. He then trained at the Indian Military Academy, passing out in 2003 from Imphal Company as Senior Under Officer. He was commissioned into the 6th Battalion, The Jat Regiment, in December 2003.

Early infantry service included time with the battalion’s Ghatak Platoon around 2004–05. He later volunteered for the Parachute Regiment (Special Forces). He served with 4 Para and subsequently with 12 Para (SF), the unit with which he is most closely identified in public remembrance. Over approximately 15 years in uniform he spent about ten years in Kashmir, with additional postings in Manipur and Agra.

The Field Officer

Army statements after his death described an officer who performed well both in operations and in academics. In August 2014 he was awarded the Sena Medal (Gallantry) for operations against Pakistan-supported terrorists in Kupwara district while posted with 4 Para. He also received the Wound Medal.

Around 2015 he underwent replacement of both knees. A former batchmate later recalled that he was back on duty within six months. The same officer described him as an “absolute josh box,” a phrase that recurs in tributes: energetic, willing to help others, and reluctant to speak about his own decorations. His elder brother told reporters that Solanki kept medals and trophies in his study and changed the subject when asked what they were for. “For him, the country was everything and he was always committed to the Army,” the brother said.

By 2018 he had been posted in Agra with a Para brigade headquarters. That year he was selected for the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most contemporaneous English-language reports state that he took up the appointment in September 2018 for a one-year tenure. Some Hindi reports place the departure earlier, in August 2017. What is consistent is that by September 2019 the tour was ending, and he was expected home that month to take over as commanding officer of 12 Para (SF). Sources also stated that he had been approved for elevation toward Colonel in November 2018 while still on the mission, with formal assumption of command to follow his return.

Congo and 8 September 2019

India has long been among the largest troop contributors to UN peacekeeping. The mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been one of its most substantial overseas deployments. Solanki served there as a military staff officer, not as a front-line infantry commander on that tour.

On 8 September 2019 a group of officers went kayaking on Lake Kivu, near Tchegera Island, close to Goma on the Congo–Rwanda border. After the outing, all returned except Solanki. An intensive search followed, using speedboats and helicopters. His body was recovered on 12 September at about 11:00 hours, roughly one kilometre from the island. Army sources described the death, on the available evidence, as drowning.

Accounts of the minutes in the water differ in detail but not in direction.

Official and press summaries stated that he drowned while attempting to rescue a fellow Indian Army officer who had fallen into the lake; the other officer reached the bank.

His father-in-law, Dayanand Hooda, speaking to IANS, gave a more specific reconstruction. Officers were in two-seater kayaks. Another kayak carrying two officials capsized in deep water. Solanki entered the lake, brought out the first officer, then went back for the second, who had nearly drowned. He brought that officer to safety as well and then went missing. The family, Hooda said, learned of the incident only the next day, 9 September.

A later commemorative account published adds a further sequence: after a kayak overturned, rescuers first recovered Solanki because he was wearing a life jacket; his colleague was still unaccounted for; Solanki removed the jacket and went back into the water; the colleague later reached shore independently; Solanki did not. Lake Kivu is known for strong underwater currents and dissolved methane, conditions that increase the risk of sudden incapacitation. These particulars are consistent with the official finding of accidental drowning during a rescue attempt; they are not a substitute for a formal inquiry report, which was not published in open sources.

Return and Family

The body arrived in Delhi on the night of 15 September 2019 and was taken to the Base Hospital. It was handed to the family the following day. Last rites were conducted at the Army Cremation Ground in Delhi Cantonment.

Solanki is survived by his wife and two children. In September 2019 the daughter was eight years old and the son was four. The family had last seen him in 2018, during the Agra posting. The household was in New Delhi.

How He Is Remembered

Public memory of Lieutenant Colonel Solanki rests on two linked facts: a Sena Medal earned in Kupwara, and a death in a Congolese lake while trying to save another officer. The second act was not a combat citation. It was an instinct trained into Special Forces culture and, by every available account, into his character.

He is commemorated each September by veterans’ pages and defence publications as an officer of 12 Para (SF) and 6 Jat, Sena Medal, who placed colleagues before himself.