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Indian Forest Service (IFS)

Service Overview
Abbreviation	I.F.S.
Formed	1966
Country	India
Training Ground	Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, Dehradun
Controlling Authority	Ministry of Environment and Forests (India)
Legal personality	Governmental: Government service
General nature	Administration of Forest and Wildlife resources
Preceding service	Imperial Forestry Service
Cadre size	3034 (Including 2009)
Website
Service Chief
	Director General of Forests Current: K. Judesekar
Head of the Civil Services
	Cabinet Secretary Current: A. K. Seth

Wildlife of India
Biodiversity Fauna Flora Lists Amphibians Ants Birds Butterflies Endangered animals Fish Mammals Molluscs Moths Odonates Reptiles Spiders Tiger beetles
Protected areas Biosphere reserves Communal forests Conservation areas Conservation and community reserves Elephant reserves National parks Private protected areas Ramsar Sites Reserved and protected forests Tiger reserves Wildlife sanctuaries
Conservation Projects Cheetah Dolphin Elephant Tiger Acts of Parliament Indian Forest Act 1927 Wildlife Protection Act 1972 Wildlife Protection Act 2002
Organisations National Ministry of Environment and Forests National Biodiversity Authority Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding Council of Forestry Research Indian Forest Service / Survey Institute of Forest Management Wildlife Institute Tiger Conservation Authority Zoo Authority International Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) South Asian Zoo Association (SAZARC) World Animal Protection World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Related topics Environmental issues Fossil parks Forestry Natural history Tourism Lists Botanical gardens Ecoregions Zoological gardens Wildlife population Elephant Tiger Wildlife
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"Imperial Forest Service" redirects here

The Indian Forest Service (Template:Lang-hi) (Abbreviated as IFS) is the Forestry service of India. It is one of the three All India Services of the Government of India. Its members are recruited by the national government but serve under the state governments or Central Government.

History

The modern Indian Forest Service was created in 1966 for protection, conservation, and regeneration of forest resources.

Imperial Forest Service

India was one of the first in the world to introduce scientific forest management. In 1864, the British Raj established the Imperial Forest Department. In 1866 Dr. Dietrich Brandis, a German forest officer, was appointed Inspector General of Forests. The Imperial Forestry Service was organized subordinate to the Imperial Forest Department in 1867. The British colonial government also constituted provincial forest services and executive and subordinate services similar to the forest administrative hierarchy used today.

Officers appointed from 1867 to 1885 were trained in Germany and France, and from 1885 to 1905 at Cooper's Hill, London, a noted professional college of forestry. From 1905 to 1926, the University of Oxford (Sir William Schlich), University of Cambridge, and University of Edinburgh had undertaken the task of training Imperial Forestry Service officers.

From 1927 to 1932, forest officers were trained at the Imperial Forest Research Institute (FRI) at Dehradun, which had been established in 1906.

Indian Forest College

The Indian Forest College (IFC) was established in the 1938 at Dehradun, and officers recruited to the Superior Forest Service by the states and provinces were trained there. Forestry, which was managed by the federal government until then, was transferred to the "provincial list" by the Government of India Act 1935, and recruitment to the Imperial Forestry Service was subsequently discontinued.

Modern agency

The modern Indian Forest Service was established in 1966, after independence, under the All India Services Act 1951. The first Inspector General of Forests, Hari Singh, was instrumental in the development of the IFS.

India has an area of 635,400 km designated as forests, about 19.32 percent of the country. India's forest policy was created in 1894 and revised in 1952 and again in 1988.

Training

Selected candidates are sent for foundation training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. This is followed by Forest Service-specific orientation at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy at Dehradun, with training on forest and wildlife management, soil conservation, surveying, Scheduled Tribes and handling weapons. After completion of their training the officers are awarded a master degree in Science (Forestry) of the Deemed University known as Forest Research Institute. The officers are taught more than 56 subjects of life sciences in two years.

After completing training at the academies, candidates go through a year of on-the-job field training in the state to which he or she is assigned. There is a probationary period of three years during which they are posted as Assistant Conservators of Forests. On completion, and after four years of service in the junior scale, officers are appointed to the Senior Time Scale and are entitled to be posted as Deputy Conservators of Forests or Divisional Forest Officers (DFO) in charge of districts/forest divisions.

The officers are supposed to work in the field of forestry as well as wildlife. At times they are posted as working plan officers and put on deputation with agencies such as State Forest Corporation, for carrying out exploiting operations of timber and their marketing, as Member Secretaries of Pollution control Board, Tourism Officers or Executive Directors or MDs of state-run corporations or boards. They can be posted as Secretaries of the Autonomous Bodies and as Directors or Joint Secretaries in government of India.

Indian Forest Service officers draw pay and other perks equal to Indian Police Service officers. They are awarded non-functional scales as when their juniors in IAS by two years draw the scale of Joint Secretary, they are awarded the scale of Chief Conservator of Forests in the state.

Salary structure

See also

• Ministry of Environment and Forests, India
• Indian Administrative Service
• Indian Police Service

References

• All India Services
• Forests of India
• Forestry in India
• Ministry of Environment and Forests (India)