The Indian Forest Service (IFS) is one of the three all India services of the Indian government, the other two being Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service. Although IFS officers are recruited by the central government through UPSC, the officers serve both the state governments and the Central Government, just like an IAS or IPS officer.
UPSC (Union Public Service Commission), the apex recruitment organisation of Indian government conducts the Indian Forest Service (IFS) exam every year in the second Saturday of July, the notification for which has just been published. This blog post and next few posts would focus on helping you get prepared for the IFS exam.
Every year 30 to 35 young persons joins IFS to take care of 6,35,400 square kilometer of Indian forest land (which is about 22.27 percent of the country). The recruitment is held through a six paper written test of 1400 marks, followed by a 300 mark Interview for those within the merit list.
IFS training programs:
What happens after some one gets selected in the IFS exam?
Well, they are put through an elaborate training programs as below:
4 months Induction program at Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), Dehradun.
4 months Foundational Course at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie.
16 months Professional program at at IGNFA, where core forestry subjects are taught.
8 months at their respective state cadres for On the Job Training (OJT) to learn practical applications and skills on professional issues taught to them in the Academy.
4 months Advance Phase at IGNFA during which they present a project carried out by them during OJT and take up modules on specialized modern forestry skills required to deliver the job with a desirable standard.
You can learn more about the post-selection IFS officers training from
this IGNFA link.
On completion of four year probationary period, IFS probationers are posted as the Deputy Conservators of Forests or Divisional Forest Officers in charge of districts/forest divisions.
Rank & Salaries of IFS officers:
Rank & Salaries of IFS officers (as per 5th Central Pay Commission) are as below:
Deputy Conservator of Forests: Rs. 14300-18300
Conservator of Forests (CFs): Rs. 16400-20000
Chief Conservator of Forests: Rs. 18400-22400
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests: Rs. 22400-24500
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCFs): Rs. 24050-26000
Source:
IFS, Ministry of Environment & Forest website.
Past statistics of IFS exam:
If you are an IFS aspirant, you must naturally would like to know how many people applies for IFS exam, how many appears in it and how many finally gets selected in the IFS exam.
Following data, taken from UPSC Annual Report 2005-06, gives you exactly this information (click on it to enlarge):
As you can see from the above statistics of IFS exam, almost 25% of people who applies for the IFS exam does not appears in the IFS written exam. Around 1% of those appearing in the IFS written exam are called for the interview. Around 25%-40% of those appearing in the interview are selected finally for the IFS.
With above IFS exam statistics, you should be happy that most of your competitors abandons the race, even before the race begins!
sir, this blog is indeed quite informative and a big thank you for doing such a great job!
i have completed my masters in zoology from a reputed college....could you please tell as to how to go about preparing for IFS exam and are there any good coaching institutes specifically for IFS?!
my email id is tulika_s@ymail.com
thnx!