India, Jan. 6 -- For far too long, the Indian Forest Service (IFS) has remained the "quiet" sibling among the three All-India Services. While the Indian Administrative Service manages the pulse of governance and the Indian Police Service safeguards internal security, the IFS is entrusted with something far more elemental: the stewardship of nearly 24 per cent of India's landmass - its forests, biodiversity, wildlife and, most critically, its water systems, the very elixir of life. Yet, despite this centrality to India's ecological and developmental future, the service continues to operate under a colonial-era framework, constrained by limited administrative authority and a narrowly defined mandate that often reduces it to a policing role....