INDIAN FOREST SERVICE

The UPSC conducts the competitive examination to recruit the personnel to the Indian forest service. The Indian forest service (an all India class I service) was created in 1966,to tackle the enormous challenges of protection, conservation, and regeneration of our huge forest resources.The officers selected through the UPSC examination are trained by the central government and then allotted to different states cadres.

Eligibility
Nationality: As per usual UPSC norms.
Age: Between 21-30 years ,age relaxation of 5 years for sc/st candidates. Obcs are also accorded age relaxation
Education: Bachelors degree with any of the following subjects as electives.
Animal husbandry, and veterinary science, botany, chemistry, zoology, geology, maths, physics ,statistics or bachelors degree in agriculture forestry engineering (agriculture civil, mechanical, chemical) .A maximum of four attempts is allowed to regular candidate for qualifying the examination. The restrictions does not apply for the sc/st candidates.Applications are invited in January/February and the examination is conducted in July/August.

The selection process:
There are two stages for the selection process ,in the first stage is the written examination. Qualifiers for which are invited for the interview

Examination plan:
The written examination consist of 2compulsory papers.
1. General english -150 marks
2. General knowledge-150 marks
The applicants has to appear for the two optional papers , also the optional can be selected from the list of following 14 subjects.
Agriculture, botany, animal husbandry, and veterinary science, chemistry, civil engineering, geology, agricultural engineering, chemical engineering, mathematics ,mechanical engineering, physics zoology and statistics ,foresty

Following combinations of optional papers are not allowed:

1. agriculture and agricultural engineering
2. agriculture and animal husbandry/ veterinary science
3.chemistry and chemical engineering;
4 . mathematics and statistics

The optional papers carry 200 marks each and the interview carries 150 marks. papers are of essay type and should be answer in English. The duration of each paper is three hours. The standard of the examination in all subjects is of graduate level.

Post selection training:
Selected candidate are trained to be civil servants at the Lal Bahadur Shastri academy where they are exposed to subjects like public management. Thereafter they are given an orientation in forest service at Indira Gandhi national forest academy, Dehradun, knowledge of wild life management, tribal welfare, soil conservation ,forest management, weapon handling etc . are imparted here.

Career prospects:
Assistant conservator of forest, district conservator of forest, conservator of forest, chief conservator of forest, principle conservator of forest , inspector general of forests are some of the ranks awaiting an Indian forest officer during his tenure . If you have the love of the outdoors and a fascination for nature and wildlife, this is an ideal sector for the employment. Application are to be made on the prescribed UPSC format which is available at the district headquarters at the specified head post office/post offices.

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