Home » Govt Exams » Indian Forest Service Exam 2022: Latest News, Eligibility, Salary & Vacancies
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts every All India Services exam. One of the exams is for the Indian Forest Services(IFS – Forest). We refer to it as IFS or IFoS. Although, it is one of the prestigious exams, however, it’s the toughest one.
Despite this, the UPSC conducts the IFoS exam once a year. The main purpose is to recruit officials for forest services across the nation. Apart from this exam, the UPSC also conducts The Indian Administrative Services exam (IAS) and the Indian Police Services exam (IPS).
Organization name | Union Public service Commission |
Type | Conducting Body |
Abbreviation | UPSC |
Exam name | Indian Forest Services |
Abbreviation | IFS/ IFoS |
Additional Information
People usually refer to the Indian Foreign Service as IFS. Therefore, the Indian Forest services will be referred to as IFoS further in this article.
India holds a position in the world to have a large number of forests. Besides, these forests need to be taken care of. For this purpose, the UPSC appoints the Indian Forest Officers.
Their responsibility is to protect and preserve these forests and the species within them. These officers have to implement the National Forest Police, and it aims to maintain ecological balance and sustenance of the natural resources present within the country.
These IFoS officers hold various posts in different state forest departments. The highest-ranking officials in the forest services are known as the Head of Forest Forces.
The UPSC conducts the exam for IFoS. Candidates have to appear in this exam. This exam is of three stages. The three stages are:
The most important aspect of this exam is that every candidate must appear in all its stages and qualify for them. Moreover, the candidates who qualify for the preliminary stage become eligible for the mains exam. And the candidates who clear both stages of IFoS exams are eligible for its final stage.
Typically, the applicants submit their application forms online on the official website of UPSC. Moreover, the tentative dates for the UPSC IFoS exam are available on the UPSC website.
As we know, all exam notifications are available on the UPSC website. The first notification for the IFoS exam came out on March 4, 2021. The notification was about the availability of exam forms. Moreover, there was also a mention of the number of vacancies for this year. This year candidates have to fight for 110 seats.
However, due to a hike in Covid cases, UPSC changed all the exam dates. The old date for the IFoS prelims exam was in June. Now according to the latest update, UPSC will conduct this exam on October 10, 2021. As most of the exam dates or their result dates are not available yet. It is said, UPSC will nearly declare all the new exam dates.
Instead of this, there are some tentative dates available for the candidates. One of the tentative dates is given for the IFoS mains exam. The UPSC can conduct this exam anytime between February 27-March 8, 2022. Although, the earlier exam date was from November 21, 2021, onwards.
Moreover, there is no information about the availability of admit cards. Also, no tentative dates are available for the last stage of the IFoS exam i.e, the personality test.
Notification | March 4, 2021 |
Conducting body | UPSC |
Exam mode | Offline |
Attempts | Six |
Vacancies | 110 |
Apply date (start) | March 4, 2021 |
Apply date (close) | March 24, 2021 |
Admit card | Not yet released |
Prelim’s exam date | October 10, 2021 |
Prelim’s result | Not yet released |
Main’s exam date | February 27-March 8, 2022 |
Main’s result | Not yet released |
Interview | Not yet released |
Final result | Not yet released |
Syllabus Candidates need to understand the syllabus properly so as to qualify for each exam stage. Here is all the information required by the aspirants. Know More – IFS- Forest Important Date & Notifications
The first stage of the IFS – Forest exam, which we often refer to as the prelims consist of two papers. The first is the General Studies Paper-I and the second is CSAT. CSAT stands for Civil Services Aptitude Test. We refer to this paper as General Studies Paper-II (CSAT). The prelims of the IFoS exam work as a screening stage. However, the marks do not determine the final score of the IFoS exam. As these marks are not added there. UPSC added the CSAT paper in the IFoS exam in 2011.
IFoS pattern and syllabus for General Studies Paper-I and CSAT
Papers | Nature | Duration | Marks |
General Studies Paper-I | Merit-ranking | 2 hours | 200 |
General Studies Paper-II (CSAT) | Qualifying | 2 hours | 200 |
First, we will talk about the syllabus of Paper-I. It includes a variety of topics.
The second one as we know is the CSAT paper.
As of now, it is quite evident that the mains exam is the second stage of the IFoS exam. Further are the details about its pattern and exam syllabus.
This subject combination is not allowed:
In the last stage of the IFoS exam, candidates must appear in front of the board for a face-to-face interview. The interviewers access their overall personality traits. The board questions the candidates about various topics. These can be local geography or history. Moreover, some questions on current affairs or trending topics are also asked.
Know More – IFS- Forest Exam Pattern and Syllabus
This section is about the educational qualifications of IFoS candidates.
UPSC has set different age limits for candidates of different categories.
When we talk about the number of attempts, there was no such thing till 1984. However, this restriction if effective since then. These attempts also vary for different categories.
Category | Attempts |
General | Seven |
SC/ST | No limits |
Differentially abled | Nine attempts for General and OBC whereas unlimited for SC/ ST |
OBC | Nine attempts |
UPSC does not release any separate IFS – Forest application forms. However, candidates can directly apply on their website in Civil Services Preliminary Section. Moreover, candidates need to take some points into consideration. These are:
The salary of IFoS officers is dependent on their posts and years of experience. The Ministry of External Affairs posts these officers across India. Sometimes they are also posted outside the nation. The IFoS officers in foreign countries get some extra allowances. Here are some details about their salary structure which includes their grade, basic pay, and grade pay.
Grade | Basic pay (INR) | Grade Pay (INR) |
Junior scale | 15,600-39,100 | 5,400 |
Senior Scale | N/A | N/A |
Senior time scale | 15,600-39,100 | 6,600 |
Junior Administrative Grade | 15,600-39,100 | 7,600 |
Selection Grade | 37,400-67,000 | 8,700 |
Super Time Scale | 37,400-67,000 | 10,000 |
Above Super Time Scale | N/A | N/A |
Super super time scale | 37,400-6700 | 12,000 |
Apex scale | 80,000 (Fixed) | N/A |
Cabinet Secretary | 90,000 (Fixed) | N/A |
Some of the perks for these IFoS officers are: Car, free landline services, house help, medical expenses, free water, and electricity. Apart from this these officers also get pension and some retirement benefits. They also get abroad study options.
The admit card for the IFS – Forest mains and prelims is available three weeks before the exam. The candidates can visit the official website for this purpose.
Applicants can download admit cards after meeting the required conditions. One of them is to pay their fee finally after submitting their application form.
We will first start with the downloading steps:
Important details available in the admit card are as follows:
IFoS Roll Number | Candidates Name | Exam Center |
Mothers name | Fathers name | Exam timing |
Email Id | Subjects | Exam Date |
Reporting Time | Address | Important Instructions |
There are two situations under which candidates cannot download their admit cards.
Moreover, there can be some technical issues due to which this happened. For such a situation, candidates can contact UPSC in the following ways:
Normally, the candidates who fail to report their issues are liable for the non‐receipt of their e‐Admission Certificate.
Following are the documents candidates must carry:
Here are the basic details stated on the IFoS admit card:
To get back the login details, candidates need to follow the steps given below:
Candidates can download their call letters for the final stage in the following way:
Know More – IFS- Forest Admit Card and Interview call letter
The UPSC will announce the IFS – Forest result for all its exam stages only on its website. In the form of a PDF, the UPSC will release the cut-off list. Subsequently, the candidates can download it later. However, the list will hold the name of the qualified candidates only. As a matter of fact, UPSC will conduct the IFoS prelims exam in October.
Given that, the UPSC will declare its result later. This is because the UPSC has not announced the result date till now. Moreover, the candidates can check their results simply by putting in their details. These can either be their roll number or their registration number with date of birth details.
Normally, UPSC releases results on its official website. Whether it be results for prelim’s or main’s exam, results are only available there. Furthermore, carry out the following steps to get the result of IFoS exams.
Details mentioned on the IFoS results are:
Know More – IFS- Forest Result & Cut off Marks
Typically, the UPSC declares the IFoS results separately for each stage. In fact, only the candidates clearing the prelims stage will qualify for the next. Moreover, in the prelims stage, candidates have to give an exam for two papers. The first one is the General Studies Paper-I and the second one is General Studies Paper-II.
Furthermore, the last stage of the selection process is the personal interview. Eventually, the final result is available after this stage.
To begin with, UPSC will conduct the IFoS prelims exam on October 10, 2021. Most of the time UPSC announces its results 40-50 days after the exam. For this purpose, a PDF file will be available on their official website.
Generally, the candidates have to appear for two papers in the prelims exam. These papers are of 200 marks each. But, include multiple-choice questions.
Normally in the IFoS prelims exam, there is a negative marking for each wrong answer. In the end, UPSC calculates the results based on marks obtained in both papers. These papers are qualifying in nature.
General Studies Paper-I | Qualifying nature | 200 marks |
General Studies Paper-II | Qualifying nature | 200 marks |
In this stage of the IFoS exam, candidates need to qualify for six papers. Together these constitute 1400 marks. Marks obtained in the mains exam stage help to prepare the merit list for the final stage. This exam is descriptive in nature.
This is the third and concluding stage of the UPSC IFoS exam. It constitutes 300 marks of the total. The marks obtained in this stage help to prepare the final merit list and the final result. Moreover, in this stage, there is no requirement for minimum marks.
For each stage of the IFoS exam, UPSC prepares a separate cut-off list. However, only the eligible candidates make it to the next selection stage. For the year 2021, UPSC will prepare the cut-off list after it conducts the IFoS exam of all stages.
Meanwhile, here is the IFoS exam cut-off result for the year 2019
Category | Cut off marks |
General | 904 |
OBC | 858 |
SC | 798 |
ST | 815 |
PwBD-2 | 787 |
PwBD-3 | 693 |
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Ans: Candidates of the general category get seven attempts to qualify for this exam.
Ans: UPSC will conduct the IFoS prelims on October 10, 2021
Ans: The total vacancies for the IFoS exam 2021 are 110.
Ans: Candidates must have done graduation in science or engineering subjects.
Ans: As such there are no major changes. If there will be any future, UPSC will mention it in one of their notifications.
Ans: Each paper of the IFoS exam is of 3 hours duration.
Ans: Ofcourse, UPSC releases a PDF file that includes candidates’ names as well as roll numbers in their merit list.
Ans: The cut-off score for the IFoS exam will be available on the official website of the UPSC after the interview round.
Ans: Candidates cannot carry any devices with them.