(Notification) UPSC : Indian Forest Service Examination (IFoS), 2020

No.13/4/2019-E.I(B) : The Union Public Service Commission will hold a Screening Test for selection to Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination, 2020 through Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2020 which will be held on 31st May, 2020, in accordance with the Rules published by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in the Gazette of India dated the 12th February, 2020.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

The 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:

(a) A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on 1st August,2020, i.e. he must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1988 and not later than 1st August, 1999.
(b) The upper age limit prescribed above will be relaxable:-
(i) upto a maximum of five years if a candidate belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe.
(ii) upto a maximum of three years in the case of candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates.

NUMBER OF ATTEMPTS :

Every candidate appearing at the Examination, who is otherwise eligible, shall be permitted six attempts at the examination.
Provided that this restriction on the number of attempts will not apply in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates who are otherwise eligible. Provided further that the number of attempts permissible to candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes who are otherwise eligible, shall be nine.
Provided further that a person with benchmark disability will get as many attempts as are available to other candidates who do not belong to person with benchmark disability of his or her community, subject to the condition that a person with benchmark disability belonging to the General and EWS Category shall be eligible for nine attempts.. The relaxation will be available to the persons with benchmark disability who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates.

PHYSICAL STANDARDS:

Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Indian Forest Service Examination,2020 as per regulations given in Appendix-III of the rules for the Indian Forest Service Examination, 2020 published in Gazette of India dated 12th February, 2020.

PLAN OF EXAMINATION

The Indian Forest Service Examination will consist of two successive stages (vide Appendix I Section-I below).

(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective type) for the selection of candidates for the Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination; and
(ii) Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the Indian Forest Service.
Applications are now invited for the Preliminary Examination only. Candidates who will be declared by the Commission to have qualified for admission to the Indian Forest Service (Main) Examination will have to apply again and submit on-line Detailed Application Form-I [DAF-I] along with scanned documents/certificates in support of date of birth, category {viz. SC/ST/OBC(without OBC Annexure)/EWS [Economically Weaker Sections] (with EWS Annexure)/PwBD/Ex-Serviceman} and educational qualification with required Examination Fee.

Exam Syllabus:

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION :

Scheme and subjects for the Preliminary and Main Examination.
A. PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION :
The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each.
Note :
(i) Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions).
(ii) The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
(iii) The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.
(iv) Details of the syllabi are indicated in Part A of Section III.

MAIN EXAMINATION

(A) The written examination consisting of the following papers:—

Paper I—General English 300 Marks
Paper II—General Knowledge 300 Marks
Papers III, IV, V and VI.—Any two subjects to be selected from the list of the optional subjects set out in para 2 below.

Each subject will have two papers.— 200 marks for each paper.
Note : Answer scripts of only those candidates who have obtained the minimum marks as decided by the Commission for Paper II (General Knowledge) will be evaluated.
(B) Interview for Personality Test (See Part C of Section II of this Appendix) of such candidates as may be called by the Commission— Maximum Marks : 300

2. List of optional subjects :

(i) Agriculture
(ii) Agricultural Engineering
(iii) Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science
(iv) Botany
(v) Chemistry
(vi) Chemical Engineering
(vii) Civil Engineering
(viii) Forestry
(ix) Geology
(x) Mathematics
(xi) Mechanical Engineering
(xii) Physics
(xiii) Statistics
(xiv) Zoology

Provided that the candidates will not be allowed to offer the following combination of subjects :
(a) Agriculture and Agricultural Engg.
(b) Agriculture and Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science.
(c) Agriculture and Forestry.
(d) Chemistry and Chemical Engg.
(e) Mathematics and Statistics.
(f) Of the Engineering subjects viz. Agricultural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering—not more than one subject;

NOTE—The standard and syllabi of the subjects mentioned above are given in Section III.

1. All the question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.
2. ALL QUESTION PAPERS MUST BE ANSWERED IN ENGLISH. QUESTION PAPERS WILL BE SET IN ENGLISH ONLY.
3. The duration of each of the papers referred to above will be three hours.
4. Candidates must write the papers in their own hand. In no circumstances will they be allowed the help of a scribe to write the answers for them. However, Low Vision candidates (minimum 40% impairment) will be allowed to write the examination with the help of a scribe. Low Vision candidates will also be allowed an extra time of sixty minutes for each paper @ twenty minutes per hour. Each paper will be of three hours duration.

Application Fee:

Candidates applying (excepting Female/SC/ST/PH candidates who are exempted from payment of fee) for Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination are required to pay a fee of Rs.100/- (Rupees One Hundred only)
either by depositing the money in any Branch of SBI by cash, or by using net banking facility of State Bank of India or by using Visa/Master/RuPay Credit/Debit card.

HOW TO APPLY:

Candidates are required to apply online only by using the official website Brief instructions for filling up the online Application Form have been given in Appendix-II. Detailed instructions are available on the above mentioned website.