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[Advice] Please tick both CSM and Indian Forest service as your examination preference.

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Comments

  • edited May 2014
    I'll be joining the service only after September. But for the benefit of those who are going to apply and those who are thinking about it, I'll share what I know about the service.

    First let me clarify few things before I write about the service,

    There are many who doesn't like IFoS. There are two types of them.

        (a). They know everything about IFoS, from its job variety to powers but still not interested in this service. Such people can skip this post. This is not for you :)

        (b). There are many people who are unaware about this service. For example one of my friend asked me 'Do IFoS officers have police powers :O '. Someone asked me 'You guys have to be in uniform all the time right?'. And some say 'IFoS officers always work inside forests :) ' Those who think this way can read this post fully for the benefit of you and the people whom you advice :)
     
    • IFoS is an All India service (Well, everyone knows this). So, the benefits  are same as that of IAS and IPS. Whenever new rule is created for IAS and IPS, it suits for IFoS as well.
     
    • IFoS is not an uniformed service! (The olive green uniform that they wear during their training is only for field visits that too during professional training alone)

    Let us know the equivalent ranks between all India services:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Services#Equivalent_Ranks
     
    Job variety:
     
    • As we all know they work as Conservators of forest, there are many more opportunities as well.
    •  I know some of seniors officers who are working as Government corporation directors(eg: Tea corporation), as regional director in Censor board, in passport office , some gets opportunity to work in FAO(yes UN agency) and some get deputed to international organisations for climate change related research.
    •  Recently, only two Gujarat cadre officers moved to powerful PMO posts :) one is IAS officer and the other one being IFoS officer :)

    Academics:
     
    IFoS officers gets MSc Forestry degree after their professional training in IGFNA, Dehradun. Most of the IFoS officers I meet have done their phd. After 9 years, they can take 2 years break for doing higher studies :)

    Powers:
     
    IFoS officers has both civil and police powers inside forests! Forest rangers and guards who work under them are uniformed police! One friend told me that in Karnataka IFoS officer heads a commando unit! The first special task force created to tackle Veerapan was headed by IFoS officer (Read about him, very inspiring person). Or you can watch Actor Vijayakanth's 100th movie titled 'Captain prabhakaran' in which he stars as an IFoS officer :D
     
    So what else you get as IFoS officers:
     
    As I said, benefits as IAS and IPS. So no need to go into deep. If you still want to know more, inbox me but read this
     
    You service not only present generation but also the future generation :) Any afforestation program you work on will serve many upcoming generations. One senior officer showed me photos of a barren land before his program and a big green forest in the same land after few years. It was amazing! Also, the work you do will help the poor people whose livelihood is based on minor forest produces.

    About the Exam:
     
     Regarding exams and optionals, there are many like me who cleared with geography in CSE and geology and forestry in IFoS. So people with geography can always give IFoS!

    Please, if you keep IFoS as a good career option then tick it. Don't just tick and skip mains. There are many who are willing to work for our nature :)

    Thanks.
  • I'll be joining the service only after September. But for the benefit of those who are going to apply and those who are thinking about it, I'll share what I know about the service.

    First let me clarify few things before I write about the service,

    There are many who doesn't like IFoS. There are two types of them.

        (a). They know everything about IFoS, from its job variety to powers but still not interested in this service. Such people can skip this post. This is not for you :)

        (b). There are many people who are unaware about this service. For example one of my friend asked me 'Do IFoS officers have police powers :O '. Someone asked me 'You guys have to be in uniform all the time right?'. And some say 'IFoS officers always work inside forests :) ' Those who think this way can read this post fully for the benefit of you and the people whom you advice :)
     
    • IFoS is an All India service (Well, everyone knows this). So, the benefits  are same as that of IAS and IPS. Whenever new rule is created for IAS and IPS, it suits for IFoS as well.
     
    • IFoS is not an uniformed service! (The olive green uniform that they wear during their training is only for field visits that too during professional training alone)

    Let us know the equivalent ranks between all India services:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Services#Equivalent_Ranks
     
    Job variety:
     
    • As we all know they work as Conservators of forest, there are many more opportunities as well.
    •  I know some of seniors officers who are working as Government corporation directors(eg: Tea corporation), as regional director in Censor board, in passport office , some gets opportunity to work in FAO(yes UN agency) and some get deputed to international organisations for climate change related research.
    •  Recently, only two Gujarat cadre officers moved to powerful PMO posts :) one is IAS officer and the other one being IFoS officer :)

    Academics:
     
    IFoS officers gets MSc Forestry degree after their professional training in IGFNA, Dehradun. Most of the IFoS officers I meet have done their phd. After 9 years, they can take 2 years break for doing higher studies :)

    Powers:
     
    IFoS officers has both civil and police powers inside forests! Forest rangers and guards who work under them are uniformed police! One friend told me that in Karnataka IFoS officer heads a commando unit! The first special task force created to tackle Veerapan was headed by IFoS officer (Read about him, very inspiring person). Or you can watch Actor Vijayakanth's 100th movie titled 'Captain prabhakaran' in which he stars as an IFoS officer :D
     
    So what else you get as IFoS officers:
     
    As I said, benefits as IAS and IPS. So no need to go into deep. If you still want to know more, inbox me but read this
     
    You service not only present generation but also the future generation :) Any afforestation program you work on will serve many upcoming generations. One senior officer showed me photos of a barren land before his program and a big green forest in the same land after few years. It was amazing! Also, the work you do will help the poor people whose livelihood is based on minor forest produces.

    About the Exam:
     
     Regarding exams and optionals, there are many like me who cleared with geography in CSE and geology and forestry in IFoS. So people with geography can always give IFoS!

    Please, if you keep IFoS as a good career option then tick it. Don't just tick and skip mains. There are many who are willing to work for our nature :)

    Thanks.
    Thank you for the insights. After reading your post I'l refill the form tomorrow and just select civil services. . Im not prepared for it and in any case dont wish to block a serious aspirant's chances of writing mains.

  • pehle batana tha...ab toh bhar dia :(
    you ca fill a fresh form with same email address. the new one will be considered and you will get your admit card on that basis only.

    relax a fill the form once again. wish you all the best

    note: i am not a ifos aspirant neither a science grad.
  • i think everyone should appear for cse this time. we have got 6 attempts(i have got 5 left).

    they have increased the no of attempts for ifos also i guess. so one gets 6 attempts there. what on earth we would do with those many attempts!! even if one is half prepered he should appear for the exam. suppose he/she appears and clears prelims then one will have chance to appear for mains. that would be something. both as a confidence booster and as an experience opprtunity on how to face mains exam and all...

    one must have a career backup option too. anything will do. ssc, cpf, po etc... it provides a mental peace which i think is very imp in this type of exam....
  • I find all the points mentioned above reasonable. But i don't understand how will civil service interview board come to know if a candidate appeared for IFoS too? They have with them a copy of our civils mains DAF and i believe DAF for forest service is separate. Am i missing something?
  • I find all the points mentioned above reasonable. But i don't understand how will civil service interview board come to know if a candidate appeared for IFoS too? They have with them a copy of our civils mains DAF and i believe DAF for forest service is separate. Am i missing something?
    CSE DAF has a column which asks you whether you have appeared for any other UPSC examination, with basic details.
  • @all who are worrying about CSE interview and appearing for IFoS, around 52 out of 85 selected IFoS candidates appeared for CSE interview this year. I don't think they asked them about IFoS selection even in the interview. Even if it so, it wont be an issue. If you still want to confirm it, wait for interview marks of those 52 :)
  • Agree with @DrSheldon i dont think it will be an issue.
  • @shivi2013
    Why should a person be scared to reveal his selection in IFoS anyway? On the contrary, this should is an added advantage because his final selection in IFoS establishes the fact that he's not in CSE interview by luck. How can board members downgrade anyone for "striving for the best"? By this logic an IRS officer should never sit for CSE again and if he/she does, should get less than 100 marks. The fact remains that the chairman is matured enough to understand these things as most of them are themselves accused of partisan pre-retirement actions for post-retirement privileges (not condoning those who actually do).

    While I do believe that merging the prelims for these two services is a wrong move by UPSC that has put serious IFoS candidates at a disadvantage and should be reversed, there's nothing that a candidate can do. The correction action has to come from the upsc itself.
  • Last year many of us didn't tick IFoS thinking that there are two optionals in IFoS and they wouldn;t be able to prepare for it. Dont repeat the mistake this time. Please tick both CSM and IFoS.

    If you are asking why, then here are my arguments.

    1. It won't cost you anything extra. You just have to tick it.

    2. Now you dont have to worry about number of attempts in IFoS as they have increased it to 6. So even if can't qualify for IFoS mains, you wont feel like wasting one IFoS attempt.

    3. As we saw last year, CSM was based very much on the lines of IFoS i.e. more no of questions, no question with marks more than 10, increased weightage of current affairs etc. IFoS GS exam is the best test series possible for CSM.

    4. Low Competition: Last year only 350 people gave IFS mains and out of that 250 were selected.

    5. AIS service: In India we have only three AIS services, IAS, IPS and IFoS. So you can estimate the prestige and power associated with IFoS. I would anyday prefer IFoS over any service other than IAS, IPS, IRS.

    6. Due to high cutoff of IFoS only engineers would qualify, who would most likely have knowledge of either one or zero optional.

    7. Giving IFoS would help you immensely for CSM interview. Remember, IFoS results are declared 1 month before CSM interviews and hence you would be able to know your marks also and prepare accordingly.

    If anyone has more reasons, please add.


    w.ref.to point no. 4- If there were 85 vacancies,how 250 ppl were selected?
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