Indian Forest Service
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| Service Overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceding service | Imperial Forest Service (1864 to 1935) |
| Year of Constitution | 1966 |
| Country | India |
| Staff College | Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), Dehradun |
| Cadre Controlling Authority | Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government service |
| General nature | Administration of Forest and Wildlife resources |
| Cadre strength | 3131 (2182 Direct Recruits and 949 Promotion Posts) |
| Website | ifs |
| Service Chief | |
| Director General of Forests | Dr. S.S. Negi, IFS (1980 Batch, Himachal Pradesh Cadre) |
| Head of the All India Civil Services | |
| Cabinet Secretary | Pradeep Kumar Sinha, IAS |
Indian Forest Service (Hindi: भारतीय वन सेवा) (abbreviated as IFS) is one of the Civil Services of India and belongs to the All India Services group, with other two All India Services being the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS).
Indian Forest Service was created in 1966 under the All India Services Act 1951. Previously, the Imperial Forestry Service existed during the British Raj from 1865 to 1935.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, under the Government of India, is the cadre controlling authority of Indian Forest Service.
India was one of the first countries in the world to introduce scientific forest management. In 1864, the British Raj established the Imperial Forest Department. In 1864 Dr Dietrich Brandis, a German forest officer, was appointed Inspector General of Forests. The Imperial Forestry Service was organised subordinate to the Imperial Forest Department in 1867 when five candidates were selected to undergo training in France & Germany. This continued up to 1885 except for a short break on account of war between France and Russia.
Officers appointed from 1867 to 1885 were trained in Germany and France, and from 1885 to 1905 at Cooper's Hill, London, also known as Royal Indian Engineering College ( a noted college of Forestry at that time) where 173 officers were trained. 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. In 1920, the Government of India took the historic decision that the IFS Probationers may be trained at one centre and consequent to the establishment of Forest Research Institute at Dehradun, the training started in India in 1926.
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