The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) holds a competitive examination named Indian Forest Service (IFS) Examination for recruiting officers for the Indian Forest Service. The Indian Forest Service was created in 1966 for the protection, conservation, and regeneration of forest resources. The Indian Forest Service Officers (IFS) who are recruited through UPSC by the Central Government plays a very crucial role in the management and supervision of the country’s forest reserves and wildlife.

Table of contents

UPSC IFoS Exam Syllabus

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The candidates should appear in both the Papers of Civil Services (Prelim) Examination for the purpose of evaluation. The candidate will be disqualified they fail to appear in both papers of Civil Services (Prelim) Examination

Part A­: Preliminary Examination

Paper I ­ (200 marks) – Duration: 2 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.
  • 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: 2 Hours

  • Comprehension
  • Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
  • Logical reasoning and analytical ability
  • Decision making and problem solving
  • General mental ability
  • numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. ‐ Class X level)

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

Part B: ­Main Examination

General English

Candidates will be required to write an essay in English. Other questions will be designed to test their understanding of English and workmanlike use of words. Passages will usually be set for summary or precis.

General Knowledge

General Knowledge including knowledge of current events and of such matters of everyday observation and experience in their scientific aspects as may be expected of an educated person who has not made a special study of any scientific subject. The paper will also include questions on Indian Polity including the political system and the Constitution of India, History of India, and Geography of nature which the candidate should be able to answer without special study.

Optional Subjects

The total number of questions in the question papers of optional subjects will be eight. All questions will carry equal marks. Each paper will be divided into two parts, viz. Part A and Part B, each part containing four questions. Out of eight questions, five questions are to be attempted. One question in each part will be compulsory. Candidates will be required to answer three more questions out of the remaining six questions, taking at least one question from each Part. In this way, at least two questions will be attempted from each Part i.e. one compulsory question plus one more.