Nari Shakti being the theme of India’s 75th Republic Day celebration, the grand parade on Kartavya Path, in the heart of the National Capital, New Delhi, displayed a spectacular combination of military feat and cultural vibrancy on January 26, 2024.

IAF showcased a breath-taking performance with a flypast featuring 51 aircraft during the Republic Day celebrations. This impressive line-up included 29 fighter aircraft, 8 transport planes, 13 helicopters, and one heritage aircraft. When 51 Indian Air Force (IAF) aircrafts zoomed over the Kartavya Path, piloting one of the fighter jets in the flypast was a young woman pilot from Mysuru. Flight Lieutenant (FLT LT) Punya Nanjappa was piloting the MiG-29 fighter and was among the eight female pilots who flew in various formations at the Republic Day parade. It was indeed a proud moment for India.

Breaking barriers is nothing new for Punya Nanjappa. She was the only girl in her batch training with 40 male cadets and the only female cadet from Karnataka to be selected as a trainee pilot for the flying branch training at the Air Force Academy, becoming the second woman from the state of Karnataka to be a fighter jet pilot after Meghana Shanbough from Chikkamagalur to do so. The training for cadets who are selected for the flying branch is divided into three stages. Punya completed Stage 1 training at the academy in Dundigal and was selected to join the fighter stream. Commissioned into the IAF in December 2020, FLT LT Punya is from the No. 47 Squadron of the IAF.

The sky is literally the limit! While choosing a career path, not many students are able to pursue their dreams and turn them into reality. Mysuru-based Coluvanda Punya Nanjappa is one such dreamer who followed her childhood passion to be a fighter jet pilot and worked hard towards achieving it. Not only is it a personal and professional achievement for Punya, but a social one too, a rare distinction for a woman who has her roots in Kodagu, a land of many ‘defence personnel’. Though the district basks in the glory of producing a Field Marshal, a General, and innumerable Lieutenant Generals, Brigadiers, and Majors in the Indian Army and their equal ranks in the Navy and the Air Force, for the first time a woman fighter pilot emerged from the tiny district.

Punya is the daughter of Coluvanda Anuradha Nanjappa, who served as a teacher at St. Joseph’s Central School, Vijayanagar, and the late Coluvanda P. Bala Nanjappa, who held the position of manager at Prabha Theatre. Though the family hails from a small district, they encouraged their daughter to aim high and achieve through hard work and courage.

Punya Nanjappa’s achievement represents a remarkable momentwazamba, highlighting the strides made by women in the IAF and representing women-power, equity and equal ownership in every walk of life with their male counterparts.

• The
• wazamba
• Sky
• Touching