APPSC Forest Beat Officer 2026: 23 Posts, Walking Test, Apply by 5 November

Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission is recruiting 23 provisional Forest Beat Officers in the A.P. Forest Subordinate Service. The brief is Notification 18/2026, dated 15 September 2026. The detailed notification went on psc.ap.gov.in on 16 October 2026. That date is the crucial date for Intermediate and for everything else the brief left to the long PDF.

Apply 16 October to 11:59 pm on 5 November 2026. Pay in the brief is Rs 25,220 to Rs 80,910. The essential qualification is Intermediate or equivalent, not a degree.

This is field work in a beat. The written paper is only the first gate. The Forest Department then runs a walking test and a Medical Board for the people APPSC calls at twice the vacancies.

What the job is

A Forest Beat Officer is the first uniformed presence on a stretch of reserved or protected forest: fire season, illicit cutting, wildlife conflict, and the records the Range depends on. You will walk. The scheme annexure does not treat the walk as optional fitness theatre. It is a condition of recruitment, run by the Forest Department with APPSC's concurrence.

If you applied because "23 posts, Intermediate, 12th-pass job", read the 1:2 call again. About 46 people (if 23 holds) will be asked to walk and to face a Medical Board. Fail either and the 200 written marks do not save you. The brief does not say that a failed walker is replaced from deep in the list in the same round.

Physical standards (height, chest, walk distance) are not in the brief. The brief says: see the online detailed notification. This page will not paste 2025 distances onto 2026. Open the 16 October PDF and train to that table.

Vacancies

23 is provisional. Community and zone rows are in the 16 October file. APPSC's 16 October web note also listed Forest Section Officer (17/2026) and Forest Range Officer (16/2026). Those are other notifications. Do not pay 18/2026 and prepare the Range Officer syllabus.

The written scheme

Para 6: one CBRT, no screening test, even if applications flood. Multi-session papers, if held, are normalised later.

Negative marking on the objective papers: one-third, G.O.Ms. No.235, 6 December 2016. Scheme: G.O.Ms.No.3, G.A. (Ser-A), 4 January 2019.

The essay is on a forest and environment theme. Fifty marks, 45 minutes. The table's TOTAL 200 is Paper I plus Paper II. Treat the essay as a qualifying paper. A brilliant 200 with a failed essay is not a selection the annexure describes.

Paper I (Intermediate standard, not a specialist science paper): everyday science and technology, current events of India and Andhra Pradesh, Indian history with AP and the national movement, AP geography, polity and economy including rural development and reforms, mental ability, sustainable development, and disaster management (earthquake, cyclone, tsunami, flood, drought, and man-made events).

Paper II is SSC standard, 50 marks science and 50 marks mathematics. Science runs from renewable energy and nuclear safety through life processes, blood and hormones, reproduction and heredity, metals and carbon compounds, pollution and the greenhouse, a long ethnobotany list (Tulsi, Neem, Arjuna, Sandal and the rest, with botanical names), and a short space block. Mathematics: number system, unitary method, HCF and LCM, logs, algebra including quadratics and sets, trigonometry to heights and distances, geometry theorems, mensuration, and elementary statistics.

If you last sat class 10 maths in 2018, start Paper II this week. Paper I will not hide a zero in mensuration.

Walking test, medical, CPT

After the written result, APPSC picks candidates in the ratio 1:2 of vacancies under Rules 22 and 22A. The Forest Department arranges the walking test and the Medical Board. Distances, rest rules and height are in the 16 October detailed PDF. Train now. Do not wait for the written result to buy shoes.

The brief also annexes a Computer Proficiency Test: 60 minutes, 100 marks, qualifying 40 / 35 / 30 (OC / BC / SC-ST-PBD), same G.O.Ms.No.26, 24 February 2023 pattern as other APPSC Grade-III posts. Confirm in the detailed notice whether CPT is required for 18/2026 at the offer stage. The annexure is printed. Ignore it only if the 16 October PDF drops it.

If you have already applied

Download the 16 October detailed PDF today. Copy the height and walk rows into your notes. If you are near the printed height, measure with a stadiometer, not a door-frame guess.

If OTPR still says you are a graduate and you applied to 18/2026 on Intermediate, that is fine: Intermediate is the essential row. A degree does not replace the walk.

Start a weekly long walk. The 1:2 call means there is almost no spare list. A person who can do 200 marks and cannot finish the printed distance is the person the Forest Department is asked to fail.

Fee, age and zone: detailed PDF only. Do not pay from a blog table.

Do not copy last year's walk onto this form

The 2026 brief is explicit: "Please see the physical requirements in ONLINE Detailed Notification." Height, chest and walk distance are therefore in the 16 October 2026 detailed PDF on psc.ap.gov.in. A 2025 figure of 25 km, or 16 km, or any other kilometre count from an older FBO notice, is not a 2026 fact until that PDF prints it.

This page will not invent a distance so that a study plan looks complete. Train on the printed 2026 table. If you have not opened that PDF yet, open it today and write the height and distance into your notes. Measure height with a stadiometer.

The Forest Department runs the walk and the Medical Board, with APPSC concurrence. The commission calls names at 1:2 of vacancies under Rules 22 and 22A. On 23 posts that is about 46 people. There is almost no spare list.

Essay is a gate, 200 is the merit

The scheme table prints a qualifying essay (50 marks, 45 minutes, English or Telugu or Urdu, forests and environment) and then two objective papers of 100. The printed TOTAL 200 is Paper I plus Paper II. Negative marking on the objective papers is one-third.

A 190 with a failed essay is not the selection the annexure describes. Practise one handwritten page a week in the language you will use on the day. Name an Andhra Pradesh forest or sanctuary. A Delhi-centric environment essay that never mentions the Eastern Ghats is the wrong page.

Paper I is Intermediate standard GS. Paper II is SSC standard science and mathematics, including a long ethnobotany list with botanical names. If you last sat class 10 maths in 2018, start Paper II this week. The written paper is only the first gate. The walk still sits after it.

This notification is 18/2026. Forest Range Officer (16) and Forest Section Officer (17) are other notifications. Do not pay 18 and prepare 16.

The 16 October web note also listed Forest Range Officer (16/2026) and Forest Section Officer (17/2026). Those are other notifications with other essential rows. Paying 18/2026 and opening a Range Officer notes PDF is wasted money. This post is Intermediate, a qualifying forest essay, two objective papers of 100, and a walk.

OTPR is a profile. Submit 18/2026. A reused Group-I or EO OTPR is fine. A reused Group-I study plan is not. There is no 24 January OMR here. There is no Paper II on the Endowments Act. There is a beat.

If you are near the printed height, measure this week. If you cannot finish a long walk on a dirt track, start now. The 1:2 call means about 46 names if 23 holds. The brief does not say that a failed walker is replaced from deep in the list in the same round.

Apply only on psc.ap.gov.in. Submit before 11:59 pm on 5 November 2026. Fee, age and zone: detailed PDF only. The brief PDF in the header is a verified copy of the annexure. If a blog table already filled those rows for you, ignore it until you have the 16 October file in your downloads folder.

Essay theme list, Paper II ethnobotany and the 1:2 rule are on the syllabus page. A full 200-question objective mock is on the practice page.