UPSC Interview Transcript of IFS Ravi Meena (AIR 67, 2017)
Indian Forest Service Interview
Interview board: Dr. Prof PK Joshi
Time: Afternoon slot, 13th Feb 2018, Mine was 4th in the group of 6.
The interview started around 4 PM and ended for 25-30mins.
There were total 4 persons. 1 chairman and 3 other members. Including one lady member.
First something about my background: Civil engineering(IITB), Waterpolo, swimming, long distance jogging, Reading books, Jaipur(currently residing), Bharatpur(birthplace), Rajasthan.
Optionals: Mathematics and Forestry.
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May I come in sir.
Chairman: Yes.
Chairman: So Ravi, you have done schooling from Jaipur, B.Tech from IITB and then what were you doing for the past years.
Me: Sir, I was preparing for Indian forest services.
C: so you have spent 4 years studying civil engineering. Govt. have subsidized your studies, India is an infrastructure deficit country and we need good engineers …..and the lecture goes on for next 30 or so seconds.
At this moment I smiled a little bit. I had been grilled on this issue in one of my mock interviews.
C: Ok, tell me How you can use civil engineering in forest management?
Me: sir we can use of engineering like surveying, construction of bridges, regression methods to develop yield tables and volume tables, in forest mensuration etc.
C: Can you explain me the design of sewage systems? How does it work?
Me: give some partial answer but it was not satisfactory.
C: can you tell me some of the produce of agriculture that are used in construction?
Me: sorry sir, I am unable to recall.( I thought of Bamboo, but I know for sure that it is a forest produce and not an agriculture produce)
Chairman only asked me three questions. I was expecting more from him.
Here, I must say that my interaction with the chairman was not on the good footing. But I kept my nerves.
Member 1: you have played water polo?
Me : yes sir I have played it during my college years.
No follow up question.
M1: tell me what are high forests?
Me: sir, forests which are developed from the seeds and not by coppicing and any other vegetative propagation methods.
M1: what is coppicing?
Me: sir it is a regeneration method in which we use the stumps of trees for the re-growth.
M1: what is pollarding?
Me: Sir, it is removing of branches in order to increase the growth of the tree.
M1: what is the difference between pollarding and coppicing?
Me: sir in pollarding only branches are cut down while in coppicing the entire tree is removed. Also, sir pollarding is done to improve the vigor of existing tree while coppicing is done for regeneration.
I was looking for expression on his face. But there were none. He was stoic. And it seems like he was thinking deeply about each and every word that has exited my mouth. In the entire interview except for the chairman all three members kept poker faces. No nod, no smile, no gesture, nothing.
M1 continuing his onslaught: how the govt. of Rajasthan is tackling with the desertification problem?
Me: sir, Govt. of Rajasthan started planting trees, we have planted foreign trees like Israeli Babool…..at this moment he cut me short.
M1: I have known that in Karnataka, Andhra, we have used some foreign species of babool but I haven’t heard about the Israeli Babool. Then he started to discuss it with lady members. They were speaking scientific names of these species. He was genuinely curious.
M1: what is the scientific name of Israeli Babool?
ME: sorry sir, I am not aware of the scientific name of it.
M1: there is a very famous site in Rajasthan for Birds?
Me: yes sir, there is the Kelodeo national park
I was expecting some cross questions but there were none.
M1: have you spent time with nature?
Me: yes, sir I have gone to Dayara Bugyal in Uttrakhand on a 7days trek. We reached the final height of 12000ft.
M1: How did you end up in Uttrakhand?
Me: Sir, I had gone on the trek after the prelims examinations.
M1: Ok, what are bugyals?
Me: they are high altitude meadows. They are vast grasslands.
M1: tell me some name of species mentioned in Schedule 1 of wildlife act, other than tiger, elephant?
Me: sir, Great Indian Bustard, the state bird of Rajasthan, Kashmiri stag, Gharial, Pygmy hog, Dancing dear of Manipur…at this he said: “that will do”.
M1: what is the working plan?
Me: give a standard definition. I spoke on this for 30secs(I think my longest answer). Still no expression.
M1: nods towards chairman. Chairman direct M2 to ask questions.
Member 2: Asked about some scheme of Ministry of external affairs?
Me: I didn’t have any iota of an idea about what he was saying, so I replied sir I don’t know.
M2: so what is Doklam issue?
Me: standard answer
M2: why India interfered in an issue which concerns Bhutan and China?
Me: said we have friendship treaty with Bhutan, strategically important Siliguri corridor is within 500km range of Doklam plateau….also within the answer I have also mentioned about the Twang issue, unacceptability of MacMohan line by Chinese.
M2: what is CPEC?
M2: what is OBOR?
M2: use of Chabahar port?
Me: told about the connectivity issue with central Asia and west Asian countries because of Pakistan, zaranj delaram highway in Afghanistan, International north-south corridor, expansion of India’s export market etc.
M2, He seems satisfied with my answers. But I couldn’t tell with surety. He was fighting hard to keep straight face and I must say to an extent he was successful.
M2 nods towards chairman. Again chairman directs the Member 3 to ask questions.
M3(lady member): so you have reading books as your hobby. What type of books do you read?
Me: Ma’am, mostly Non-fictional. But I also read fictional books.
M3: tell me the latest book that you have read?
Me: I too have a dream by Verghese Kurien. The man responsible for operation flood.
M3: Explain a little bit about operation flood?
M3: from where it was stared?
Me: Anand, Gujarat.
M3: Is it still prospering or continuing?
Me: yes Ma’am, recently our milk production has crossed the production of grains in monetary terms. India remains the largest producer and consumer of milk in the world.
M3: pressure on agriculture increasing, lands are shrinking and we have to feed 1.3billion mouths. What steps should be taken?
Me: Ma’am, increase the productivity of our farmers, which is way lower as compared to China, consolidation of land holdings as more than 80% Indian farmers are marginalized…
M3: Cutting me short she said, “what about GM crops?”(she was expecting that point)
Me: Ma’am GM crops if have been tested vigorously than can be used for food production. But we are seeing debate in our country regarding Bt Mustard.
M3: If you have to construct a road from the tropical evergreen forest of lets’ say in Kerala or Tamilnadu what will you do?
Me: Ma’am we only have 3% of forest cover with canopy more than 70%. So if there is any way from which we can avoid cutting of trees, than it should be adopted. We can’t just cut through tropical rain forests.( I had remembered the data because the “India state of Forest report 2017” was released just 1 or 2 days ago from my interview)
M3 seems satisfied. But still no expression. She nods towards Chairman.
Chairman said Thank you. I said the same to all the persons and left the room.
My 2 cents: Don’t get nervous if you are unable to answer some of the questions. Even I wasn’t able to answer 2 questions properly out of 3 questions which were asked by the chairman himself.
It is possible that your interview may drift outside the DAF. For example, there were hardly 2-3 questions on my DAF and there were no follow-ups. It all depends upon the conversation that you are having with your board.
Interview Marks: 180.
Source- Quora
Ravi Meena's Quora handle- Click here
Ravi Meena's blog- Click here
Ravi Meena's Instagram handle- Click here
