Lieutenant General Channira Bansi Ponnappa, PVSM, AVSM, VSM is a serving general officer in the Indian Army. Currently, he is adjutant general of the Indian Army. He has earlier served as the commander of the XI Corps. He also serves as the colonel of the Mahar Regiment. As a UN peacekeeper, he is known for his role as commander of the United Nations' MONUSCO forces in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the M23 rebellion.

Ponnappa hails from the Nangala village near Bittangala in the Kodagu district in Karnataka.^[1] He attended the St Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore, a part of the batch of 1980. He then attended the St Joseph's College, Bangalore for a year before joining the National Defence Academy in 1981. He graduated from the Indian Military Academy in 1985.^[2]

Ponnappa was commissioned into the 2nd battalion, Mahar Regiment in June 1985. He commanded a company, combating the counter insurgency in Manipur. He attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. He subsequently served as the Brigade Major of an Independent Armoured Brigade. As a colonel, he later commanded his battalion in amphibious operations.^[3] He then served as the Colonel General Staff Operations (Col GS (Ops)) of an Infantry Division. Ponnappa also attended the College of Defence Management where he completed the Higher Defence Management Course.

Promoted to the rank of Brigadier, he commanded the Shakti Vijay Brigade (104 Infantry Brigade) along the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir in 2012. As a representative of the Indian Army, he had flagged off an educational and motivational tour under Operation Sadhbhavana in Tangdhar area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district.^[4] Ponnappa also attended the prestigious National Defence College, New Delhi.

Ponnappa was awarded the COAS Commendation Card in 1997 and the GOC-in-C Commendation Card in 2006. In 2017, he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal and in 2019, the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal.^[11][12]

• MONUSCO NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa, briefs members of UN Security Council as they visit the front line in Kibati near Goma from where the M23 rebels have been recently defeated, 6 October 2013
• NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa and FC Gen. Santos Cruz in the trenches of Munigi hill, 22 August 2013
• FC Gen. Santos Cruz, NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa and FIB commander James Aloizi Mwakibolwa in the trenches of Munigi hill, 22 August 2013
• MONUSCO NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa, briefs members of UN Security Council as they visit the front line in Kibati near Goma from where the M23 rebels have been recently defeated, 6 October 2013