Indian Forest Services

IFoS stands for The Indian Forest Services. IFoS is one of the three arms of the Indian Services along with the Indian Administrative  Service and the Indian Police Services.

 

The recruitment is done Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) at the All India Level for the management of its forest. Under the British Raj is was established as Imperial Forest Service in 1864. Later is was constituted as IFoS in 1966.

 

 

 

IFoS Exam

Every year, UPSC conducts the Civil Service Examination(CSE) for more than 24 services, such as IAS, IPS, and IFS, by shortlisting the candidates. More than nine lakh candidates registered for the exam and almost five lakh candidates appear for the examination.

 

The selection process goes through several screening steps starting with preliminary exam, main examination, and interview. Selection is a year-long process that starts in the month of June and ends in April, and the final list comes in the month of May.

Name of the Exam	Civil Service Examination
Organizing Body	Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
Exam Level	National
Exam Mode	Paper and Pen-based( Offline)
Number of Vacancies	Approx. 90
Number of Services	24
Number of Attempts	6 times
Number of Registrations	Approx. 9Lakh
Admit Card	Online
Official Website	https://www.upsc.gov.in/

 

IFoS EXAM

The UPSC generally releasees the date of the Civil Services Examinations notification in the month of February. Aspirants willing to appear for this All Indian Services along with other services can apply online by visiting the official website of UPSC.

Notification	Month
Civil Service Examination Advertisement	February
IFoS- Online Application Form	February to March
IFoS- Preliminary Admit Card	2nd Week of May
IFoS- Preliminary Exam	October
IFoS- Preliminary Result	November
IFoS-Main Exam	January
IFoS-Main Result	February
IFoS-Interview	March to April
IFoS-Final Result	May

 

Eligibility Criteria: IFoS

 

 

1. Nationality

• Candidates must be a citizen of India
• Candidates must be a citizen of Nepal or a subject of Bhutan.
• Candidates must be Tibetan refugees who came to India before January 1, 1962, for settling permanently in India.
• Candidates must a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Burma, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Myanmar, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Vietnam, Zaire with the motive to settle permanently in India.

2. Educational Qualification 

• Candidate must hold any Bachelor’s degree from recognized universities with at least any of the subjects like Animal Husbandry & Veterinary, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, Zoology OR
• Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture or Forestry or Engineering from a recognized University.
• Candidates who have appeared for the qualifying exam and are awaiting results are also eligible.
• There is no minimum percentage required for graduation.

 

3. Age Limit & Number of Attempts 

A candidate should be a minimum of 21 years and a maximum of 32 years to appear for the Civil Service Examination. The maximum age mentioned above is relaxable for the following candidates :

1. Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST): 5 years
2. Other Backward Classes(OBC) : 3 Years
3. Defence Service Personnel : 3 years
4. Ex-servicemen and ECOs/SSCOs who have served at least 5 years in Military Service as of 1^st of August of the Notification Year: 5 years
5. Blind, Deaf-mute and physically handicapped person : 10 Years.

Category	Maximum Age Limit	No of Attempts
General	32 Years	06
Other Backwards Castes (OBC)	35 Years	09
Economically Weaker Section(EWS)	32 Years	06
Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST)	37 Years	Till the age limit
Physically disabled candidates	42 Years	For General and OBS candidates = 9 For SC/ST Candidates = Till age limit

 

4. Physical Criteria

The candidate must be physically fit as per the physical standard mentioned in the advertisement for applying in Indian Forest Service Examination.

 

IFoS Officer: Roles & Responsibility

• Conservation of both plants and animals with an aim to ensure environmental stability and maintenance of ecological balance.
• To protect and conserve the forest and work towards preserving the forest resources.
• To keep an eye on the illegal logging of the trees, taking initiative to plant more trees and preserving the forest trees
• Implementing the National Forrest Policy with close coordination of Forest Department and Ministry
• To deal with both natural and manmade calamities like Deforestation, Breed vulnerability, human and animal encounters, hunting and poaching of animals, forest fires.

 

Career Graph of IAS Officer

 

All the selected candidates are sent for the foundation training course at Lal Bahadur Shastri  National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie (LBSNAA) followed by a special training at Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Dehradun (IGNFA).

 

The highest post an IFoS officer can aspire to reach is Principal Chief Conservator of Forests. Career graph of an IFoS officer is given below

Designation at Government of India	Designation at State Government	Grade
Assistant Inspector General of Forests	Assistant Conservator of Forests/Asst. Deputy Conservator of Forests	Junior Time Scale
Assistant Inspector General of Forests	Deputy Conservator of Forests	Senior Time Scale
Assistant Inspector General of Forests	Deputy Conservator of Forests	Junior Administrative Grade
Assistant Inspector General of Forests	Deputy Conservator of Forests (Selection Grade)	Selection Grade
Deputy Inspector General of Forests	Conservator of Forests /Chief Wildlife Warden	Super Time Grade
Inspector General of Forests	Chief Conservator of Forests	Senior Administrative Grade
	Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests	HAG Scale
Additional Director General of Forests	Principal Chief Conservator of Forests	HAG+ Scale
Director-General of Forests	Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force)	Apex Scale

 

IFoS EXAM PATTERN

UPSC conducts exams in three-level as mentioned below.  The candidate must clear all the 3 exams successfully to get the offer letter from Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)

1. Preliminary Test
2. Main Exam
3. Interview.

 

Stage One-Preliminary Test (400 Marks)

• The Preliminary Exam consists of GS -I (General Studies) & CSAT (Civil Service Aptitude Test).
• Both the papers are objective type (Multiple Choice Question)
• The question papers are set in Hindi and English language.
• Blind candidate gets an additional 20 minutes of time for both the paper.
• Candidates appearing in the preliminary test must qualify for the cut-off score to get themselves eligible for the mains exam.

Paper	Type	Total Marks	Duration
General Studies I	Objective( MCQ)	200	2 Hours
General Studies II (CSAT)	Objective( MCQ)	200	2 Hours

 

Stage Two-Main Examination (1700 Marks)

• Candidates who qualify the preliminary test are called for the Main Exam.
• Main exam consists of 6 papers.
• The paper will be only in English
• There are 2 optional subjects that the candidate has to choose from.
• The candidate who scores higher than the cut off marks in the main exam will be called for the next round of the selection process which is the interview round.

 

The written exam consists of the following papers

Paper	Subject	Type	Duration	Total Marks
Paper I	General English	Descriptive	3 Hours	300
Paper II	General Knowledge	Descriptive	3 Hours	300
Paper III	Optional I	Descriptive	3 Hours	200
Paper IV	Optional II	Descriptive	3 Hours	200
Paper V	Optional I	Descriptive	3 Hours	200
Paper VI	Optional II	Descriptive	3 Hours	200
Sub Total Marks				1400
Interview Marks				300
Grand Total Marks				1700

 

List of Optional subjects to be chosen by the candidate for the IFoS  exam

Agriculture	Agricultural Engineering
Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science	Botany
Chemical Engineering	Chemistry
Mechanical Engineering	Geology
Civil Engineering	Mathematics
Statistics	Physics
Zoology	Forestry

 

Stage Three- Interview (300 Marks )

The candidate who qualify the mains exam is called for the interview process. This is the last and final stage of the recruitment cycle before the results are declared. The maximum marks in the interview is 300 thus accruing the total marks in the merit list to be 1700.

 

UPSC board takes the interview which consists of the competent panelists, who would judge the candidature on the following grounds :

• Mental Attentiveness
• Critical power of understanding
• Clear and Logical Interpretation
• Balance of Judgement
• Ability of social solidarity and leadership
• Intellectual and virtuous integrity

 

A physical test will be conducted after the interview. Male candidate will have to complete 25km walk or run in less than  4 hours of time and Female candidates will have to complete 14km walk or run in less than 4 hours.

 

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