Indian Forest Service (IFS) Exam 2022: Eligibility Criteria and Important Dates

Indian Forest Service is an integrated part of the Civil Services conducted by the  UPSC. This exam filters those candidates who are apt to serve in the Indian Forest Department for preservation and protection. This post asks for some criteria for joining as an official.

Indian Forest Service as the name suggests is the service related to the forest. Forests are very important for the coexistence of humans and other animals. Due to several human activities, forests are degrading day by day. Therefore the government had made a post of a bureaucrat who is responsible for formulating different policies for forest welfare.

An IFS officer is a civil service officer of India who is responsible for the welfare of forestry, wildlife science and environmental science. This post is similar to IAS IPS and IAS and the exam is conducted by the same authority that is the Union Public Service Commission. 

Former	Imperial Forest Service
Country	India
Cadre Controlling Authority	Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change
General Nature	Forestry, Wildlife Science, and Environmental Science
Director-General of Forests	Sanjay Kumar
Cabinet Secretary	Rajiv Gauba
Website	ifs.nic.in

Also Read: What is Indian Forest Service? How to Become an IFoS Officer?

Indian Forest Service Exam Pattern

The recruitment of the candidates for the IFS post is conducted in three phases: prelims, mains and interviews.

Phase	Papers	Total Marks	Time Allotted
Preliminary Exam	2	200	2 hours
Mains Exams	6	1400	2 hours
Interview	–	300	2 hours

Also Read: Indian Forest Service Eligibility 2021: Here’re the IFoS Eligibility Criteria, Syllabus & Salary

Preliminary Examination

The prelim examination is the first and the qualifying stage of the UPSC IFS examination. The candidates who cleared this examination can succeed in the next part of the examination. The pattern of this paper is similar to the UPSC civil service examination.

Paper	Total no. of questions	Total marks	Marks carried by each question	Negative marks	Time Allotted
1	100	200	2	1/3	2 hours
2	80	200	33% passing marks	1/3	2 hours

Mains Examination

The main examination is different from UPSC civil service mains. There are a total of 6 papers in this examination and each is descriptive in type. The first paper is General English followed by general knowledge. Then the last four people are for optional subjects.

Paper	Paper Name	Total marks
I	General English	300
II	General Knowledge	300
III	Optional Subject I	200
IV	Optional Subject I	200
V	Optional Subject II	200
VI	Optional Subject II	200

Interview

The last stage is the interview where the candidate has to appear face to face in front of the panel and answer their questions. The candidates will be just on their intellects, judgement, alertness, etc.

Also Read: Indian Foreign Services Syllabus: Click here to Know all about the UPSC IAS & IFS Exam

Eligibility Criteria

The Indian Forest Service post is a prestigious post that offers good salary + employee benefits as well as growth opportunities. Four several candidates appeared for the examination. If you also want to appear for this examination you have to ensure that you are eligible for this. To ensure your eligibility you need to fulfil the following criteria:

The eligibility criteria are as discussed below:

Educational Qualification

Candidates should hold a Bachelor’s degree in at least one of the subjects namely, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Geology, Chemistry, Botany, Mathematics, Physics, Zoology, and Statistics. The candidate may also have a Bachelor’s degree in Forestry or Agriculture or Engineering from any university (or equivalent). Candidates who have appeared in the degree examination can also apply. But the proof of the same will have to be provided.

Nationality

There are some other eligibility criteria for the IFS officers. Some physical fitness criteria will be there before recruiting an officer.

# Citizen of India

# A subject of Nepal

# A subject of Bhutan

# A Tibetan Refugee in India as a permanent resident (until January 01, 1962)

# Indian origin individuals from Burma, Pakistan, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire and Ethiopia, Sri Lanka or from Vietnam to permanently settle in India forever.

# The candidates in B, C, D and E categories need to have a certificate proof of eligibility which should be issued by the GOI. An offer of appointment/recruitment will be issued only on the submission of the eligibility certificate copy.

Age Limit 

The candidate’s age will be a minimum of 21 years and a maximum of 32 years(as in the year of the examination) of the year of examination.

The candidate should be 21 years old. The candidate will not be allowed to appear in the exam if above 32 years. This criterion is for General Category candidates. But SC and ST candidates have a relaxation of upper age up to 37 years. OBC candidates have a relaxation of upper age up to 35 years. The State of Jammu & Kashmir has special provisions for candidates as they have upper age relaxation for up to 35 years ( if they are staying from January 1980 to December 1989). 

Ex-servicemen candidates get relaxation of the upper age limit of up to 37 years. This relaxation is subject to Commissioned Officers and ECOs/SSCOs, who have been in the Military Services for at least 5 years in respect to the year of the examination. The ex-servicemen should have completed an assignment or are already in the process of completion within the current year. A blind, deaf, dumb and orthopedically handicapped person has a relaxation of 10 years.

Categories	UPSC Exam Age Limit	Age Relaxation
General	21-32 years	–
OBC	21-35 years	3 years
SC/ST	21-37 years	5 years
Defense Service Personnel	21-35 years	3 years
Ex-servicemen	21-37 years	5 years
General PWD	21-35 years	3 years
OBC PWD	21-38 years	3+3 years
SC/ST PWD	21-40 years	5 years+3 years

Also Read: Indian Forest Service (IFS/IFoS) Exam – Eligibility Criteria

Number of Attempts of Exams

# General (category) candidates can attempt 6 attempts 

# Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe(ST)  Candidates can have unlimited attempts

# Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates can avail 9 attempts

# Physically handicapped can also avail  9 attempts if a general category and OBC

# Physically handicapped  SC/ST gets unlimited attempts

# Attempts are counted from the time of appearing in the Prelims Exam. 

Category	Number of Attempts
General/ EWS	6
OBC	9
SC/ST	No limit
General PWD	9
OBC PWD	9
SC/ST PWD	No limit

For more details visit: https://upsc.gov.in/

Important Dates

UPSC CSE 2022 Notification Release Date	February 2, 2022
Date of Application form	February 2022
Last Date to apply online	March 2022
Prelims Exam Admit Card	May 2022
Prelims Date	1st week of June 2022
Preliminary exam result	2nd week of July 2022
Admit Card for Main Exam	December 2022
Exam Date (Main)	December 2022
Final result Announced	To be notified

Also Read: IFS Officer Salary: UPSC Indian Foreign Service Income and Perks

Conclusion

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