UPSC conducts exam for civil services and cracking it gives you the opportunity to be in services like IAS, IPS, IRS, Indian Foreign Services and others. For getting into Indian Forest Services also one has to clear the UPSC’s exam, in which the preliminary round is common with civil services but the Mains and Interview round is different. So, it becomes difficult for an aspirant to even attempt both as they have to take two different optional subjects for forest services.
However, this young man from Aurangabad (Bihar) made this difficult possible for him and cracked both Civil Services and Forest Services this year. Mr. Ankit Sinha secured AIR 472 in Civil Services and AIR 43 in the Forest Services exam.
In a conversation with Indian Masterminds, he spoke about his journey and why he is choosing forest services over civil services.
THE URGE OF WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE
Mr. Sinha comes from a humble background and was following the same path like everybody else. After finishing 12th from his hometown Aurangabad, he went to NIT Jamshedpur for pursuing B.tech. Talking about it he says, “If you are a good student from Bihar then you have majorly two options, either go for medical or engineering. I was good in Maths so I chose the later. After spending one year in college, I realized I wasn’t suited for it. However, given the circumstances I had to finish my studies and get a job to sustain myself.”
Till then, he had not given any thought about trying for civil services. For improving his communication skills, he started to read newspapers and magazine and that is when he realized that everything is not right with us and he felt an urge to work for people’s welfare. Reading world and national affairs evolved him as a person. Remembering those days he said, “First time, I read about the Global Hunger Index and how India stands too low in the list even though we have 10% of the global agricultural land. These issues disturbed me and I began to ask myself how can I contribute to make it better. Besides this, my college was also around a rich vegetation area and lots of tribal villages were around it. I got the chance to volunteer for an NGO named Sankalp run by a college alumni. I got the opportunity to observe their lifestyle and decided to work towards it.”
He had two choices, NGO or civil services. He chose civil services thinking that it will allow him to make greater impact.
TOOK FIVE ATTEMPTS
Meanwhile, he completed B. Tech. and came to Gurgaon for a job. He decided to take up a job so as to sustain himself while preparing for UPSC. In his first attempt, while managing the job, he couldn’t get through Pre but it gave him confidence that with focused preparation he can make it. After doing the job for 18 months, he quit and dedicated himself for the preparation. The second attempt also didn’t bring any luck but in in 2019 he got first opportunity to write Mains. Again in 2020 he couldn’t clear Pre but in 2021 he made it to the final list.
CHOOSING A SUBJECT OF HUMANITY AS OPTIONAL
Mr. Sinha says even though he could have taken engineering subjects as optional but he chose Economics instead. “ I really wanted to know why we are still a developing nation while the other nation who were at the same point as us during 50s are way ahead. Economics gave me the opportunity to understand the situation better and be prepared to do things when I enter the services”, he added.
WHY FOREST SERVICES?
Initially when Mr. Sinha started preparation for civil services, he was not much aware about what Indian Forest Services offiers and how it works. Eventually, he explored and came to know about it. In 2019 also he was qualified for giving the Mains for it but he couldn’t due to lack of preparation. This time he had decided that he will give his best. Even though there was two months gap between both the Mains, he did it. It was difficult to prepare both optionals, Geology and Forestry in the given time but with targeted studies he made in the final list of both the exams.
When asked about what is he going to choose he said, “I am definitely going for Forest services. I don’t which service will be assigned to me in civil services still IFS is a better choice for me. Here, I am going to work for tribals and rural areas which are depended on forest for their day-to-day life. It allows me the opportunity to work in the area which initially pushed me towards civil services. Besides this, all the work done by forest department (Conservation of natural resources, forest and wildlife) takes future generation and sustainable development in its account. No, other services could offer it”.
