IFS/IFoS – Strategy – Forestry Optional

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March 19,
2016

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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 2nd optional for I.F.S (first one was geology ,for which I would write 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 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
hahahaha ,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 decent manner. So its a must buy

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

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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 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 ample amount of time and check
previous year questions multiple times. Along with 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

Its a small chapter, remember scientific names of mangroves .Trees , shrubs
and herbs of cold desert must also be remembered, as in 2015 direct question
on scientific name was asked

4) Silviculture of trees

Read Prabhu and some random net search.

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 answer, and
have a feel good factor.

Indian Forestry by K. Manikandan and S. Prabhu

2) Forest Soils, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management

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 Refer Prabhu or geography book

This chapter is also simple,direct,clear and gives enough fodder to write 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 a 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 important chapter,all your life as an IFoS, you would be involved in preparing
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 technical topic and must be done carefully, 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
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 Search internet for Ethno botany

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)

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