Anupama Puchimanda, India's first international women's hockey refree, succumbs to Covid-19

By: WE Staff | Monday, 19 April 2021

Its been more than a year since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has taken many lives and Anupama Puchimanda is one among them who have passed away due to Covid-19.

Anupama Puchimanda, India’s first-ever international woman hockey referee was a native of Bethu village, Kodagu district. She was born on July 8, 1980.

As a referee, Anupama had officiated in 88 international hockey matches including World Junior Hockey, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games.

She became the first woman from India to officiate in international hockey matches when she began her career as an international hockey umpire in 2004. She was selected by the International Hockey Federation as one of the youngest umpires among ten men and women in the world.

Anupama served as an umpire for the first Takamadonomiya four-nation international hockey tournament in Japan, the junior Asia Cup in Hyderabad (India) in 2004, the East Asian Games in Macaw in 2005, the junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile in 2005, the six-nation international tournament in Korea in 2005, the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia in 2006, and several other national and international tournaments.

She competed in the sub-junior and senior women's national hockey championships for Karnataka. She had also competed in the All India Inter-university Hockey Championship for two years in a row for Mangalore University. In the academic year 2002-2003, she was named the best all-rounder.

She was awarded the title of Best Umpire (Women) India by the Sardar Gain Singh Memorial Hockey Society in New Delhi in 2007 and the Namma Bengaluru Award Sportsperson in February 2011 for her outstanding achievements.

Expressing Hockey India’s (HI) condolences to the bereaved family, its President Gyanendro Ningombam said,” This (Sunday) morning we woke up to the very sad news about Anapama Punchimanda’s demise in Bengaluru.She was one of the first few women in India to umpire at very reputed international tournaments. We at Hockey India share the grief of her family and friends and we extend our deepest condolences to Anupama’s family members.”