UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) 2026: Notification, Vacancy, Syllabus, Cut Off, Result

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) (Indian Forest Service Examination) is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission to recruit for Indian Forest Service, a Group A All India Service under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, managing state forest departments, wildlife and protected areas. The IFoS 2026 notification declares 80 — 33 UR, 21 OBC, 12 SC, 8 EWS and 6 ST.

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) selection process

1. Preliminary Examination — the Civil Services (Prelim) paper, sat in common
2. Main Examination (written, descriptive)
3. Interview / Personality Test

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) selection runs through the stages below, each of which must be cleared in sequence.

1. Preliminary Examination — the Civil Services (Prelim) paper, sat in common
2. Main Examination (written, descriptive)
3. Interview / Personality Test

Exam pattern by stage

Document verification

UPSC verifies eligibility against original documents only after a candidate has qualified for the Interview or Personality Test. Until that point, admission to every stage is purely provisional — the issue of an e-Admit Card does not mean your candidature has been cleared. A candidate can therefore sit and clear a paper and still be found ineligible later.

Final merit

Merit is prepared from the marks that count for this examination, and posts are allotted by merit-cum-preference against the confirmed vacancies. Ties are broken by rules published by the Commission — typically the marks in the compulsory papers, and where those are equal, seniority in age.

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) exam pattern

Total marks

Mains written 1400 marks + Interview 300 marks = 1700 marks.

Negative marking

Yes — one third of the marks for a question is deducted for each wrong answer in the Preliminary Examination. The Main Examination is descriptive and carries no negative marking.

UPSC does not normalise marks

This is the single most common misconception carried over from SSC. UPSC conducts each paper in one sitting with one question paper, so there are no shifts to equate and no normalisation formula. A published UPSC cut off is a raw mark you could actually have scored on the paper — which is why the figures are clean numbers rather than five-decimal scores.

What is next for UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS)

The IFoS 2026 Main Examination begins on 22 November 2026. The IFoS 2027 Preliminary Examination will again be held with the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination on 23 May 2027.

IFS Eligibility

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) eligibility requires the following. A Bachelor's degree with at least one of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics or Zoology, or a degree in Agriculture, Forestry or Engineering, from a recognised university. The age limit is 21 to 32 years as on 1 August 2026 — the same limits as the Civil Services Examination.

Educational qualification

A Bachelor's degree with at least one of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics or Zoology, or a degree in Agriculture, Forestry or Engineering, from a recognised university.

Age limit

21 to 32 years as on 1 August 2026 — the same limits as the Civil Services Examination.

Age relaxation

A candidate who belongs to SC, ST or OBC and is also an Ex-serviceman or PwBD candidate is eligible for cumulative relaxation under both heads.

Number of attempts

6 attempts for General and EWS candidates, 9 for OBC, and unlimited for SC and ST.

Nationality

A candidate must be a citizen of India, or fall within the other categories of nationality set out in the Examination Notice — which for most services include subjects of Nepal and Bhutan, Tibetan refugees who came to India before 1 January 1962, and persons of Indian origin who have migrated from certain countries with the intention of permanently settling in India.

IFS Application Form

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) applications are submitted online at upsconline.nic.in. Since 2025 UPSC uses a four-module portal, and three of those modules can be completed before the notification is even published.

Important dates — IFoS 2026

Application fee

₹100 for the Preliminary Examination and a further ₹200 for the Main Examination. Female, SC, ST and PwBD candidates are exempted from both.

The URN and the Common Application Form

UPSC issues every candidate a Universal Registration Number (URN), which is registered once in a lifetime and is common to every UPSC examination. The Application Number, by contrast, is generated per examination and changes each time. Keep both — UPSC asks for them in any future correspondence.

How to apply

1. Create an account on upsconline.nic.in.
2. Complete Universal Registration to generate your URN. This can be done at any time — you do not need to wait for a notification.
3. Fill the Common Application Form (CAF) with your personal details, qualification and category, and upload the supporting documents. A live photograph must be captured at this stage in addition to the uploaded photo.
4. Open the examination-specific module during the application window, choose your centre and options, pay the fee and submit.

UPSC advises using an Aadhaar card as the identity document, because it verifies automatically and avoids manual checks later.

Correcting your application

UPSC provides a one-time facility to update the URN profile. Changes made to the profile do not flow back into applications already submitted — they apply only to applications made after the profile is re-locked. This catches people out every cycle.

IFS Vacancy

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) vacancies for IFoS 2026: 80 — 33 UR, 21 OBC, 12 SC, 8 EWS and 6 ST.

Posts covered

Indian Forest Service, a Group A All India Service under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, managing state forest departments, wildlife and protected areas.

Pay

Pay Level 10 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix at entry (₹56,100 basic), as Assistant Conservator of Forests.

How UPSC announces vacancies

UPSC publishes an approximate vacancy figure in the Examination Notice and states in the same paragraph that the number is liable to alteration. The final figure is settled once the cadre controlling authorities confirm their requirements, which is usually after the Main Examination. The number in the notice is therefore an indication, not a commitment.

Reservation

Vacancies are reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, the Economically Weaker Sections and Persons with Benchmark Disability as fixed by the Government. The notice sets out the category-wise break-up, including the sub-categories of disability against which each PwBD vacancy is identified.

IFS Salary & Job Profile

UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFS) posts carry Pay Level 10 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix at entry (₹56,100 basic), as Assistant Conservator of Forests, plus Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance and Transport Allowance.

Posts and pay

Indian Forest Service, a Group A All India Service under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, managing state forest departments, wildlife and protected areas.

Allowances

Because HRA and Transport Allowance are city-linked, two officers on identical basic pay take home noticeably different amounts — a metro posting pays more in allowances than a district posting, though the district posting usually comes with official accommodation and a vehicle.

Career progression

Promotion follows time scales fixed for the service, moving through Junior Time Scale, Senior Time Scale, Junior Administrative Grade, Selection Grade and above. The pay matrix levels rather than the entry salary are what make these posts competitive over a career.