History
India is a country with varied natural resources and thus requires scientific management of its forests. The British India Government recognized the need of a premier forest management service and constituted the Imperial Forest Service in 1867. The officers appointed to this service were trained in France and Germany and later in London. The Imperial Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, presently & popularly known all over the world as FRI was established at Dehra Dun in the year 1906. Since then the training program shifted to Dehra Dun.
The subject of "Forestry" which was initially managed by the Federal Government, was transferred to the "Provincial List" by the Government of India Act, 1935 and subsequently recruitment to the Imperial Forest Service was discontinued. The Indian Forest Service, one of the three All India Services, was constituted in the year 1966 under the All India Services Act, 1951 by the Government of India.
The main mandate of the service is the implementation of the National Forest Policy which envisages scientific management of forests and to exploit them on a sustained basis for primary timber products, among other things.
Organization
The initial constitution of the Indian Forest Service consisted of the four following categories of the officers
- Initial Recruits (IR);
- Emergency Commissioned/Short Service Commissioned (EC/SSC)
- Direct Recruits also known as Regular Recruits (DR/RRs); and
- Promotees (appointed from State Forest Service.
Direct Recruits constitute 66.33 per cent of the cadre strength of the service is filled by Direct recruitment done through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) by conducting an all India level competitive examination open to graduates with science background. After qualifying the written examination, the candidates have to appear for a personality test, a walking test and a standard medical fitness test.
Composition of the Service
The total authorized cadre strength of the Indian Forest Service as on date is 2751 which includes 1917 Direct Recruit and 834 Promotion posts. The total Senior Duty Posts (SDP) in the Indian Forest Service are 1674 and the remaining under various reserves. The table below shows the administrative hierarchy in descending order.
Pay Structure
