Indian Forest Service Exam from July 14

Union Public Service Commission will hold the competitive examination for recruitment to the Indian Forest Service, from 14th July, 2012 at Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bareilly, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cuttack, Dehradun, Delhi, Dharwad, Dispur, Gangtok, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu, Jorhat, Kochi, Kohima, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Panaji (Goa), Patna, Port Blair, Raipur, Ranchi, Sambalpur, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Udaipur and Vishakhapatnam.

The number of vacancies to be filled on the results of the examination is expected to be approximately 85. The number of vacancies is liable to alteration. Reservation will be made for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Physically Handicapped Categories in respect of vacancies as may be fixed by the Government.

Eligibility Conditions:

Nationality: Applicant must be a citizen of India. Exceptions to this are given in the detailed Notification at http://upsc.gov.in/

Age: Applicant must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 30 years on 1st August, 2012. So applicant must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1982 and not later than 1st August, 1991. The upper age limit will be relaxable up to a maximum of 5 years if a candidate belongs to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, up to a maximum of 3 years in case, the candidate belongs to Other Backward Classes who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates. Details regarding the relaxation in age, available for other categories are available in the detailed notification.

Minimum Educational Qualifications: Applicant must hold a Bachelor’s Degree in one of, 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 Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section-3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 or possess an equivalent qualification.

Those who have appeared at an examination, the passing of which would render them educationally qualified for the Commission’s examination but have not been informed of the results as also the candidates who intend to appear at such a qualifying examination will also be eligible for admission to this examination. Such candidates will be admitted to the examination, if otherwise eligible but their admission would be deemed to be provisional and subject to cancellation if they do not produce proof of having passed the requisite examination along with the Detailed Application Form which will be required to be submitted to the Commission by the candidates who qualify on the result of the written part of the examination.

Number of attempts: Every candidate appearing at the Examination, who is otherwise eligible, is permitted four attempts at the examination. The restriction is effective from the examination held in 1984. However, this restriction on the number of attempts will not apply in the case of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates who are otherwise eligible. The number of attempts permissible to candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes, who are otherwise eligible, is seven. A candidate shall be deemed to have made an attempt at the examination if he/she actually appears in any one or more papers.

Physical Standards: Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Indian Forest Service Examination, 2012 as per regulations given in Appendix-III of the Rules for the Indian Forest Service Examination, 2012 published in the Gazette of India dated 14th April, 2012.

Fee: All female applicants and those belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes are not required to pay any fee. All other applicants (excepting Female/SC/ST/PH candidates who are exempted from payment of fee) are required to pay a fee of Rs.100/- either by depositing the money in any Branch of SBI by cash or by using Net Banking facility of SBI, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur/State Bank of Hyderabad/State Bank of Mysore/State Bank of Patiala/State Bank of Travancore or by using Visa/Master Credit/Debit card. No fee exemption is, however, available to OBC candidates and they are required to pay the full prescribed fee.

In case of applicants whose payments details are received from the bank, they will be treated as fictitious payment cases and a list of all such applicants will be made available on the Commission’s website within two weeks after the last day of submission of Online Application. These applicants will also be intimated through e-mail, to submit copy of proof of their payment to the Commission at the address mentioned in the e-mail. The applicant shall be required to submit the proof within 10 days from the date of such communication either by hand or by speed post to the Commission. In case, no response is received from the applicant, their application shall be summarily rejected and no further correspondence shall be entertained in this regard. Physically Disabled Persons are exempted from the payment of fee provided they are otherwise eligible for appointment to the Services/Posts to be filled on the results of this examination on the basis of the standards of medical fitness for these Services/Posts (including any concessions specifically extended to the physically disabled). A physically disabled candidate claiming age relaxation/fee concession will be required by the Commission to submit along with his/her Detailed Application Form, a certified copy of the certificate from a Government Hospital/Medical Board in support of his/her claim for being physically disabled.

Application: Application is to be submitted Online at www.upsconline.nic.in. Detailed instructions for filling up Online Applications are available on the above mentioned website. The Online Applications can be filled up to 11.59 pm on 14th May, 2012, after which the link will be disabled.

The applicants should submit only one application. However, if due to any unavoidable situation, if he/she submits another/multiple applications, then he/she must ensure that application with the higher Registration ID (RID) is complete in all respects like applicant’s details, examination centre, photograph, signature, fee etc. The applicants who are submitting multiple applications should note that only the applications with higher RID will be entertained by the Commission and fee paid against one RID will not be adjusted against any other RID. Candidates are not required to submit hard copy of their application to the Commission at this stage.

Admission Certificate: Eligible candidates will be issued an e-Admission Certificate three weeks before the commencement of the examination. The e-Admission Certificate will be made available at www.upsc.gov.in for downloading by candidates. No Admission Certificate will be sent by post. If a candidate does not receive his/her e-Admission Certificate or any other communication regarding his/her candidature for the examination three weeks before the commencement of the examination, he/she should at once contact the Commission.

Plan of Examination: The first stage of the Indian Forest Service Examination comprises of the written examination with all the questions papers for the examination being of conventional (essay) type and consisting of the following papers each of three hours duration (i) Paper I -General English (300 marks) (ii) Paper II- General Knowledge (300 marks) (iii) Paper III to Paper VI- Any two subjects be selected from the list of optional subjects from (i) Agriculture (ii) Agricultural Engineering (iii) Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science (iv) Botany (v) Chemistry (vi) Chemical Engineering (vii) Civil Engineering (viii) Forestry (ix) Geology (x) Mathematics (xi) Mechanical Engineering (xii) Physics (xiii) Statistics (xiv) Zoology, with two papers from each subject, with 200 marks for each of the four papers.

However, candidates will not be allowed to offer the following combination of subjects. (a) Agriculture and Agricultural Engineering (b) Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science (c) Agriculture and Forestry (d) Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (e) Mathematics and Statistics (f) not more than one subject from the Engineering subjects (Agricultural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering).

The standard and syllabi of the subjects mentioned above are given in Schedule to the Appendix to the detailed Notification. Question papers will be set in English only. All question papers must be answered in English. 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, 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. Details related to the question paper patterns are given in the Detailed Notification.

Candidates will be allowed the use of Scientific (Non-Programmable type) Calculators at the conventional type examination of UPSC. Programmable type calculators will, however, not be allowed and the use of such calculators shall tantamount to resorting to unfair means by the candidates. Loaning or interchanging of calculators in the Examination Hall is not permitted.

Answer scripts of only those candidates who have obtained the minimum marks as decided by the Commission for Paper II (General Knowledge) will be evaluated.

The second stage is the Interview for Personality Test, of such candidates as may be called by the Commission, for which there will be a maximum of 300 marks.

Candidates are requested to keep ready the attested copies of the following documents for submission to the Commission soon after the declaration of the result of the written part of the examination which is likely to be declared in the month of December, 2012/January, 2013. (i) Certificate of age (ii) Certificate of educational qualification (iii) Certificate in support of claim to belong to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes/ Physically Disabled, where applicable (iv) Certificate in support of claim for age/fee concession, where applicable.

Immediately after the declaration of the result of the written part of the examination, successful candidates may be intimated by the Commission electronically and they shall be asked to submit Detailed Application Form (DAF) online. The successful candidates have to send the printout of this DAF with each page duly signed along with the attested copies of the above mentioned certificates to the Commission at that time. Originals will have to be produced at the time of interview. The interview letter to the candidates may also be issued electronically. If any of their claims is found to be incorrect, they may render themselves liable to disciplinary action by the Commission in terms of Rule 11 of the Rules for the Indian Forest Service Examination, 2012.