IFS/IFoS – Strategy – Forestry Optional

I had no background of Forestry what-so-ever before taking the IFoS attempt of 2015. Got a rank in Top 50 in the first attempt. Therefore, this article is primarily aimed to help those who are completely new to this subject and want to take it as an optional subject in Indian Forest Service’s Examination.

Kindly give at least 20+ serious days for forestry preparation, as competition is increasing day by day.

The Choice of Forestry

I chose Forestry because:

1.  I found it easier to understand along with significantly less factual data to memorize.
2.  The subject- content is straightforward. Therefore, I decided to take up Forestry as my 2^nd optional for I.F.S (first one was geology, for which I would write a detailed post)
3. Most importantly since I am computer Sc graduate, so I had very limited choices and for this exam, Forestry is like pub ad :).(pun intended)
4. Since I am a working professional, so it was difficult to study any other tough science subject.

Getting Idea

I bought Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu .and kept in my cupboard hahaha, didn’t open it before prelims, as I was busy in prelims preparation along with glancing over geology.

I can really tell you, this book is crap. A shoddy copy paste work, but whatever is there in syllabus this book covers it about 90% in a decent manner. So it is a must-buy

(One more thing, do buy last 10 years Questions Papers of IFoS. and go through it time to time )

Topic-wise Books:

As I was confident to crack the Prelims with a decent score; therefore, I did not wait for the result and started preparing soon after. I referred the following books for different portions of the syllabus.

Paper  1

Section A

1)Silviculture – General

•  Principles and Practice of Silviculture by L.S. Khanna
• (The most important book: Read two chapters)
• This is the most important chapter so do give it an ample amount of time and check previous year questions multiple times.

2)Silviculture – systems

•  Theory and Practice of Silviculture Systems by Ram Prakash, L S Khanna (but wasn’t able to revise) and  K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu 
• This is the also important chapter so do give it an ample amount of time and check previous year questions multiple times. Along with the first chapter, this chapter is a core forestry chapter so do prepare well.

3) Silviculture – Mangrove and Cold desert

•  Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu 
• It is a small chapter, remember the scientific names of mangroves.Trees, shrubs and herbs of the cold desert must also be remembered, as in 2015 direct question on the scientific name was asked

 4) Silviculture of trees

•  Read Prabhu and some random net search.
• An important chapter, but least important of all 4, try to remember as much tree with their properties.

Section B 

1) Agroforestry, Social Forestry, Joint Forest Management and Tribology

This chapter is saviour, simple, direct, clear and gives enough fodder to write an answer, and have a feel-good factor.

• Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu 

2) Forest Soils, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management

•  Refer Prabhu or geography book

• This chapter is also simple, direct, clear and gives enough fodder to write an answer.

3) Environmental Conservation and Biodiversity

•  Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu
• Can be prepared from GS Perspective also

 4) Tree Improvement and Seed Technology

•  Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu
• Topics like Provenance Trials etc. can be prepared from internet, and I did prepare this topic 1 day back and there was an 8 marker question on this topic, so read topics carefully.

Paper  2

Section A 

1) Forest Management and Management Systems

• Forest Management by   Prakash Ram (awesome book), but again Prabhu would do the trick if you are running out of time.

2) Forest Working Plan

• Indian Forestry   by    K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu
• This is an important chapter, all your life as an IFoS, you would be involved in preparing the working plan only. Do read this topic well, its interesting also

3) Forest Mensuration and Remote Sensing

 Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu+net search.

(This is a technical topic and must be done carefully, the good thing is that it can give good marks if done carefully) Try to make diagrams also.

4) Surveying and Forest Engineering

• Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu
• Bit tough and technical chapter, but marks fetching if understood clearly

Section B

1) Forest Ecology and Ethno-botany

• Internet search+last 10-year papers book had this topic.
• Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu 
• Search internet for Ethnobotany

2) Forest Resources and Utilization:

• Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu
• its quite cluttered in this book, but almost all info is here. Read this chapter multiple times to get idea. This time multiple question was asked from this chapter

(Try to remember as many examples, along with their scientific names, as you can) 

3) Forest Protection & Wildlife Biology

• Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu

(Important topic as these topics are also asked in interview as well as G.K. paper)

4) Forest Economics and Legislation

• Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu
• Wikipedia

Shortcut

In case you do not find time to go through all these books, a decent preparation can be ensured just by going through the following 2 books:

• Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu
• Forest Management by Prakash Ram

Group Study

We had very good, WhatsApp group in which we discussed a lot. So these type of groups can be interesting and helpful. I sincerely wish good luck to all the candidates who want to appear in I.F.S. Examination. All the Best.

Vipul Pandey (IFoS)