Neethu George Thoppan love for the mountains, hiking, and all kinds of field work made Indian Forest Service a natural choice for a career. A native of Idukki, Kerala, she cleared the Indian Forest Service (IFS) exam with AIR 28 in her fourth attempt. However, she had set her eyes on a forest career much before, it seems, as she had done her B.Sc Honours in Forestry from the Kerala Agricultural University at Mannuthy, Thrissur.

Today, Indian Masterminds presents the success story of this girl from a forests-filled rural area of Idukki, who chose IFS to be close to nature.

MOUNTAIN LOVER 

Neethu George Thoppan cleared Indian Forest Service (IFS) exam with AIR 28 in her fourth attempt and ranked second in Kerala.

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Both her parents were teachers. Her father Perumala Thoopan George Joseph was a physical education trainer and mother Jessy Joseph was a lower primary school teacher.

Ms. Thoppan, who is a mountain lover, had dreamt of becoming an IAS officer during her school days. However, after her 12^th examination, she opted for BSc Honours in Forestry at the Kerala Agricultural University at Mannuthy, Thrissur. And this kind of sealed her fate.

She says that she opted for forestry after she got to know about the great potential, and the field works and hiking trips to the national park that were included in its course.

During her graduation years, Ms. Thoppan went to different field trips organized by the university. Apart from this, she also visited the Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh. She says that these visits changed her career prospect. There, Ms. Thoppan got a chance to speak to many forests officers who told her various things about the forest service. After all these field visits, she made up her mind to prepare for the India Forest Service examination.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Ms. Thoppan cleared IFS exam in her fourth attempt. During her previous attempts, time management was a big challenge for her. She says that the invigilators snatched answer sheets from her as she continued writing even after the time was up. This was a challenge for her in all the three attempts. However, she worked on it and managed her time well during all the three stages of the examination in the fourth attempt.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC

She had tested positive for Covid during the final revision of her prelim examination. And, after her quarantine days, she fell down from the stairs and injured a ligament of her leg. “This didn’t let me down, I went to give the exam with plaster on my leg and made sure that I do well in this attempt,” she had shared with media.

However, this wasn’t the end to her difficulties. Ms. Thoppan again turned Covid-19 positive while preparing for her interview round. The interview was scheduled 10 days after she tested positive. However, she made it to the interview after testing negative on time.

SUPPORT FROM PARENTS & VILLAGERS

Ms. Thoppan also shared  with media that her father wanted her to be a collector. However, things changed after she started her bachelors in forestry.

Nonetheless, her family was very supportive all through her journey. Every time she failed, they always stood by her and encouraged her to work harder and achieve the goal she dreamt of. 

“I come from a small village area full of forest, where people knew that I was preparing for this competitive exam and they, too, always supported me,” she said.

PREPARATION STRATEGY

Ms. Thoppan advice to aspirants is, to never take CSAT likely and prepare it properly with sincerity. “My strategy was that I went through all the previous year question papers starting from the year 2011, and every Sunday, I solved each paper honestly so that I am well prepared for the exam,” she said.
She also added that the most important thing for every aspirant is proper time management while writing the answers during the exam.

Ms. Thoppan’s will power and hard work helped her reach this far even after several failures. Even two bouts of Covid and a torn ligament couldn’t stop her from reaching her goal, thereby, proving yet again that where there is a will, there is always a way.