This paper focuses on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and well-being of Indian students pursuing undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education in private higher education institutions in India. The paper maps the experiences of students by analyzing the data collected in the Spring of 2021 through the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) COVID-19 Survey designed by the SERU Consortium at the University of California, Berkeley, and adapted to the Indian higher educational context by the Centre for Comparative and Global Education under the aegis of the International Institute for Higher Education Research and Capacity Building at O.P. Jindal Global University. The analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data indicates that HEIs need to take innovative measures to contain the adverse impact of the pandemic on the mental health and well-being of learners.