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The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has released the detailed notification for the Indian Forest Service (Preliminary) Examination, 2023 today, February 01, 2023. Along with the notification, the UPSC IFS Prelims Application form 2023 will also be published. Candidates who wish to apply for the exam can fill up and submit the application forms available on the official website of the Union Public Service Commission – upsc.gov.in. The last date to apply is February 21.

UPSC IFS Prelims 2023 Notification PDF 

UPSC IFS Prelims 2023 Exam Date

The Indian Forest Service Examination will consist of two successive stages. The Union Public Service Commission will hold a Screening Test for selection to the Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination, 2023 through the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2023 which will be held on May 28, 2023, in accordance with the Rules published by the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change in the Gazette of India dated February 01, 2023.

Complete Study Notes available : For subscribe click here

IFS Exam Combo Pack @ 5000/- IFS Prelims study notes (hard copy) @ 2500/- IFS Main Study Notes (hard copy) @ 2500/- Each optional subject (hard copy) @ 2000/- IFS Exam 2023 pdf for combo pack @ 3000/- IFS Prelims study notes pdf @ 1000/- IFS Main study notes pdf @ 1500/- Each optional subject pdf @ 1000/- IFS Prelims Crash Course pdf @ 2500/-

Indian Forest Service (IFS) Exam is conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) once in a year. Being a challenging entrance exam, aspiring candidates need to put in a lot of hard work and planning into preparations.

The Indian Forest Service Examination will consist of two successive stages. Civil Services (Preliminary) Exam (Objective type) through CSP for the selection of candidates for the Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination; and Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the Indian Forest Service.

Eligibility Criteria for IFS

Nationality: A candidate must be either:-

(a) A citizen of India, or
(b) a subject of Nepal, or
(c) a subject of Bhutan, or
(d) a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before 1st January, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India.

Or

(e) a person of Indian origin (PIO) who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Srilanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India. Provided that a candidate belonging to categories (b), (c), (d) and (e) shall be a person in whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India.

Educational Qualification

Candidate should have a degree from a recognized University.

A candidate must hold a Bachelor’s degree with at least one of the subjects namely Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Zoology or a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Forestry or in Engineering of any of Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification.

Age Limit 

Candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years.

Age relaxation for reserved category candidates as per govt. norms.

Age Relaxation

Upto a maximum of five years if a candidate belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe.

Upto a maximum of three years in the case of candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes who are eligible to avail of reservation appli- cable to such candidates

Number of Attempts

Every candidate appearing at the Examination, who is otherwise eligible, shall be permitted six attempts at the examination.

IFS Examination Pattern

1. The competitive examination comprises two successive stages :

(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective Type) for the screening & selection of candidates for Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination; and

(ii) Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates against the vacancies identified and reported for the Indian Forest Service Examination.

2. The Preliminary Examination will consist of two papers of Objective type (multiple choice questions) and carry a maximum of 400 marks.

This examination is meant to serve as a screening test only; the marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination by the candidates who are declared qualified for admission to the Main Examination will not be counted for determining their final order of merit.

The number of candidates to be admitted to the Main Examination will be about twelve to thirteen times the total approximate number of vacancies to be filled in the year through this examination. Only those candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Preliminary Examination in the year will be eligible for admission to the Main Examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission, to the Main Examination.

1. Note I : Since there may be common candidates for Civil Services Examination and the Indian Forest Service Examination, after the common Screening Test done through Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, separate lists will be prepared for the candidates eligible to appear in the Civil Service (Main) Examination and Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination, based on the criterion of minimum qualifying marks of 33% in General Studies Paper‐II of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination and total qualifying marks of General Studies Paper­I of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination as determined by the Commission on the number of vacancies to be filled through the Civil Services Examination and Indian Forest Service Examination.

2. Note II : There will be negative marking for incorrect answers (as detailed below) for all questions except some of the questions where the negative marking will be inbuilt in the form of different marks being awarded to the most appropriate and not so appropriate answer for such questions.

• There are four alternatives for the answers to every question. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate, one‐third of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty.

• If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the given answers happen to be correct and there will be same penalty as above for that question.

• If a question is left blank i.e. no answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.

3. The Main Examination will consist of written examination and an interview test. The written examination will consist of 6 papers of conventional essay type in the subjects.

A. PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION PATTERN

The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each.

1. Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions).

2. The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English. However, questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question paper.

3. Dtails of the syllabi are indicated in Part A of Section III.

4. Each paper will be of two hours duration. Blind candidates will; however, be allowed an extra time of twenty minutes for each paper.

Part A — Preliminary Examination

Paper I - (200 marks) Duration : Two hours

• Current events of national and international importance 

• History of India and Indian National Movement 

• Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World. 

• Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc. 

• Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc. 

• General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change - that do not require subject specialization 

• General Science

Paper II - (200 marks) Duration : Two hours

• Comprehension Interpersonal skills including communication skills; 

• Logical reasoning and analytical ability 

• Decision making and problem solving 

• General mental ability 

• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. — Class X level) 

• English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).

Note 1: Paper­II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.

Note 2 : The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type.

Note 3: It is mandatory for the candidate to appear in both the Papers of Civil Services (Prelims) Examination for the purpose of evaluation.

Therefore a candidate will be disqualified in case he/she does not appear in both the papers of Civil Services (Prelim) Examination.