UPSC Indian Forest Service Exam

Can you tell me in detail about the Indian Forest Service Exam conducted by UPSC IFS or Union Public Service Commission as I want to check if I am eligible to sit for the exam or not?

[Quick Sam]

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts a screening test for selection to Indian Forest Service (Main) examination, through Civil Services (Preliminary) examination.

Indian Forest Service (Preliminary) Examination

Age Limit:
Candidate’s age must have attained 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years.
Age relaxation will be applicable as per rules.

Educational Qualification:
Candidate must have a Bachelor’s degree with minimum 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 any recognized University of India
or
Possess an equivalent qualification.

Selection Process:
Selection is based on Preliminary Examination (Objective type) & Main Examination (Written and Interview).

Application Fee:
Candidates have to Pay Rs.100/- either by online or offline mode.
No Fee for Female/ SC/ ST/ PH candidates.

Indian Forest Service Examination Syllabus
SYLLABI FOR THE EXAMINATION
NOTE : Candidates are advised to go through the Syllabus published in this Section for
the Preliminary Examination and the Main Examination.
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 : Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X
level (last item in the Syllabus of Paper-II) will be tested through passages from
English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question
paper.
Note 2 : The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type.
Part B—Main Examination
The standard of papers in General English and General Knowledge will be such as may
be expected of a Science or Engineering graduate of an Indian University.
The Scope of the Syllabus for optional subject papers for the examination is Broadly of
the Honours Degree level i.e. A level Higher than the Bachelors Degree and lower than
the Masters Degree. In the case of Engineering subjects, the level corresponds to the
Bachelors Degree.
There will be no practical examination in any of the subjects.
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
every day 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 a nature which the candidate
should be able to answer without special study.
Optional Subjects
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.
Agriculture
Paper-I
Ecology and its relevance to man, natural resources, their sustainable management and
conservation. Physical and social environment as factors of crop distribution and
production. Climatic elements as factors of crop growth, impact of changing
environment on cropping pattern as indicators of environments. Environmental
pollution and associated hazards to crops, animals, and humans.
Cropping pattern in different agro-climatic zones of the country. Impact of highyielding
and short-duration varieties on shifts in cropping pattern. Concepts of multiple
cropping, multistorey, relay and inter-cropping, and their importance in relation to food
production. Package of practices for production of important cereals, pulses, oil seeds,
fibres, sugar, commercial and fodder crops grown during Kharif and Rabi seasons in
different regions of the country.
Important features, scope and propagation of various types of forestry plantations such
as extension, social forestry, agro-forestry, and natural forests.
Weeds, their characteristics, dissemination and association with various crops; their
multiplication; cultural, biological and chemical control of weeds.
Soil-physical, chemical and biological properties. Processes and factors of soil
formation. Modern classification of Indian soils, Mineral and organic constituents of
soils and their role in maintaining soil productivity. Essential plant nutrients and other
beneficial elements in soils and plants. Principles of soil fertility and its evaluation for
judicious fertilizer use, integrated nutrient management. Losses of nitrogen in soil,
nitrogen-use efficiency in submerged rice soils, nitrogen fixation in soils. Fixation of
phosphorus and potassium in soils and the scope for their efficient use. Problem soils
and their reclamation methods.
Soil conservation planning on watershed basis. Erosion and run-off management in
hilly, foot hills, and valley lands; processes and factors affecting them. Dry land
agriculture and its problems. Technology of stabilising agriculture production in rain
fed agriculture area.
Water-use efficiency in relation to crop production, criteria for scheduling irrigations,
ways and means of reducing run-off losses of irrigation water. Drip and sprinkler
irrigation. Drainage of water-logged soils, quality of irrigation water, effect of
industrial effluents on soil and water pollution.
Farm management, scope, important and characteristics, farm planning. Optimum
resources use and budgeting. Economics of different types of farming systems.
Marketing and pricing of agricultural inputs and outputs, price fluctuations and their
cost; role of co-operatives in agricultural economy; types and systems of farming and
factors affecting them.
Agricultural extension, its importance and role, methods of evaluation of extension
programmes, socio-economic survey and status of big, small, and marginal farmers and
landless agricultural labourers; farm mechanization and its role in agricultural
production and rural employment. Training programmes for extension workers; lab-toland
programmes.
Paper-II
Cell Theory, cell structure, cell organelles and their function, cell division, nucleic
acids-structure and function, gene structure and function. Laws of heredity, their
significance in plant breeding. Chromosome structure, chromosomal aberrations,
linkage and cross-over, and their significance in recombination breeding. Polyploidy,
euploid and an euploids. Mutation-micro and macro-and their role in crop
improvement. Variation, components of variation. Heritability, sterility and
incompatibility, classification and their application in crop improvement. Cytoplasmic
inheritance, sex-linked, sex-influenced and sex-limited characters.
History of plant breeding. Modes of reproduction, selfing and crossing techniques.
Origin and evolution of crop plants, centre of origin, law of homologous series, crop
genetic resources-conservation and utilization. Application of principles of plant
breeding to the improvement of major field crops. Pure-line selection, pedigree, mass
and recurrent selections, combining ability, its significance in plant breeding. Hybrid
vigour and its exploitation, backcross method of breeding, breeding for disease and
pest resistance, role of interspecific and intergeneric hybridization. Role of
biotechnology in plant breeding. Improved varieties, hybrids, composites of various
crop plants.
Seed technology, its importance. Different kinds of seeds and their seed production and
processing techniques. Role of public and private sectors in seed production,
processing and marketing in India.
Physiology and its significance in agriculture. Imbibition, surface tension, diffusion
and osmosis. Absorption and translocation of water, transpiration and water economy.
Enzymes and plant pigments; photosynthesis-modern concepts and factors affecting the
process, aerobic and nonaerobic respiration; C, C and CAM mechanisms.
Carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism.
Growth and development; photoperiodism and vernalization. Auxins, hormones, and
other plant regulators and their mechanism of action and importance in agriculture.
Physiology of seed development and germination; dormancy.
Climatic requirements and cultivation of major fruits, plants, vegetable crops and
flower plants; the package of practices and their scientific basis. Handling and
marketing problems of fruit and vegetables. Principal methods of preservation of
important fruits and vegetable products, processing techniques and equipment. Role of
fruits and vegetables in human nutrition. Raising of ornamental plants, and design and
layout of lawns and gardens.
Diseases and pests of field vegetables, orchard and plantation crops of India. Causes
and classification of plant pests and diseases. Principles of control of plant pests and
diseases Biological control of pests and diseases. Integrated pest and disease
management. Epidemiology and forecasting.
Pesticides, their formulations and modes of action. Compatibility with rhizobial
inoculants. Microbial toxins.
Storage pests and diseases of cereals and pulses, and their control.
Food production and consumption trends in India. National and international food
policies. Production, procurement, distribution and processing constraints. Relation of
food production to national dietary pattern, major deficiencies of calorie and protein.
Agricultural Engineering
Paper – I
Section A
1. Soil and Water Conservation : Scope of soil and water conservation. Mechanics
and types of erosion, their causes. Rainfall, runoff and sedimentation relationships and
their measurement. Soil erosion control measures - biological and engineering
including stream bank protection-vegetative barriers, contour bunds, contour trenches,
contour stone walls, contour ditches, terraces, outlets and grassed waterways. Gully
control structures - temporary and permanent - design of permanent soil conservation
structures such as chute, drop and drop inlet spillways. Design of farm ponds and
percolation ponds. Principles of flood control-flood routing. Watershed Management -
investigation, planning and implementation - selection of priority areas and water shed
work plan, water harvesting and moisture conservation. Land development - leveling,
estimation of earth volumes and costing. Wind Erosion process - design for shelter
belts and wind brakes and their management. Forest (Conservation) Act,
2. Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing : Basic characteristics of photographic
images, interpretation keys, equipment for interpretation, imagery interpretation for
land use, geology, soil and forestry.
Remote sensing - merits and demerits of conventional and remote sensing approaches.
Types of satellite images, fundamentals of satellite image interpretation, techniques of
visual and digital interpretations for soil, water and land use management. Use of GIS
in planning and development of watersheds, forests including forest cover, water
resources etc.
Section B
3. Irrigation and Drainage : Sources of water for irrigation. Planning and design of
minor irrigation projects. Techniques of measuring soil moisture - laboratory and in
situ, Soil-water plant relationships. Water requirement of crops. Planning conjunctive
use of surface and ground water. Measurement of irrigation water, measuring devices -
orifices, weirs and flumes. Methods of irrigation - surface, sprinkler and drip,
fertigation. Irrigation efficiencies and their estimation. Design and construction of
canals, field channels, underground pipelines, head-gates, diversion boxes and
structures for road crossing.
Occurrence of ground water, hydraulics of wells, types of wells (tube wells and open
wells) and their construction. Well development and testing. Pumps-types, selection
and installation. Rehabilitation of sick and failed wells.
Drainage causes of water logging and salt problem. Methods of drainage— drainage of
irrigated and unirrigated lands, design of surface, sub-surface and vertical drainage
systems. Improvement and utilization of poor quality water. Reclamation of saline and
alkali soils. Economics of irrigation and drainage systems. Use of waste water for
irrigation — standards of waste water for sustained irrigation, feasibility and
economics.
4. Agricultural Structures : Site selection, design and construction of farmstead -
farm house, cattle shed, dairy bam, poultry shed, hog housing, machinery and
implement shed, storage structures for food grains, feed and forage. Design and
construction of fences and farm roads. Structures for plant environment - green houses,
poly houses and shade houses. Common building materials used in construction -
timber, brick, stone, tiles, concrete etc and their properties. Water supply, drainage and
sanitation system.

more syllabus detail to attached a pdf file;