OSSSC Forester Forest Guard Excise Constable Exam Date 2026 Announced (CRE-2025 II) (1,518 Posts)

Odisha Sub-Ordinate Staff Selection Commission (OSSSC) has officially announced the Written Test Exam Date for the recruitment of Forester, Forest Guard and Excise Constable under CRE-2025 (II). As per Notice No. IIE-121/2025-360/OSSSC dated 1st March 2026, the Computer Based Recruitment Examination (CBRE) will be conducted from 16th April 2026 and may continue up to 2nd Week of May 2026 in all districts of Odisha. This recruitment drive aims to fill 1,518 vacancies (47 Forester, 896 Forest Guard, and 575 Excise Constable posts) in Group C cadre. Candidates who have successfully applied for this recruitment can download their Admission Letters from the official website www.osssc.gov.in using their User ID and Password. The admission letter will contain complete details about exam date, venue, timing, and examination center. Mock tests are also available on the portal to familiarize candidates with the CBRE examination pattern.

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OSSSC Forester, Forest Guard & Excise Constable Exam Date 2026 – Overview

OSSSC CRE-2025 Exam Date Notification PDF

The Odisha Sub-ordinate Staff Selection Commission has released the official Exam Date Notification PDF for the CRE-2025 recruitment of Forester, Forest Guard and Excise Constable posts. All registered candidates can now download the OSSSC CRE-2025 Exam Date notice from the official website www.osssc.gov.in and check the schedule of the written test. As per the notification, the written exam will be conducted in CBRE mode from 16th April 2026 to the 2nd week of May 2026 across all districts of Odisha.

OSSSC CRE-2025 (II) Exam Date – Important Dates

Key Highlights from Exam Date Notice:

Computer Based Recruitment Examination (CBRE) will be conducted from 16th April 2026

Examination may continue till 2nd Week of May 2026

Written Test will be conducted in all districts of Odisha State

Candidates must download Admission Letter from www.osssc.gov.in

Mock Test available while downloading Admission Letter

No hard copy of Admission Letter will be sent by post

Date, Venue, Timing, and Centre details available in Admission Letter

Examination will be in multiple shifts with multiple question sets

Normalization Methodology will be used to convert raw scores

PwD candidates allowed compensatory time of 30 minutes (@20 minutes per hour)

Commission reserves right to change exam date in case of exigency

OSSSC Forester, Forest Guard & Excise Constable Recruitment 2026 Vacancy Details

Forester – Circle-wise Vacancy Breakup (Annexure-I)

Forest Guard – Division-wise Vacancy Breakup (Annexure-II)

Category-wise, division-wise vacancies for Forest Guard are provided in Annexure-II for 896 posts, showing UR, ST, SC, SEBC (including women) and Ex-Servicemen vacancies for each Division / KL / WL / Circle cadre.

Excise Constable – District-wise Vacancy Breakup (Annexure-III)

Eligibility Criteria

Forester: Must have passed +2 Science from recognized University, Institution or Board with knowledge in basic Computer skills. Must have attained age of 18 years and not above 32 years as on 1st January, 2025.

Forest Guard: Must have passed High School Certificate Examination (10+) from recognized Board or Institution. Age: within 18–32 years as on 1st January, 2025 as per table.

Excise Constable: Must have passed +2 Examination or equivalent conducted by Council of Higher Secondary Education, Odisha or any other recognized Board or Council. Must have attained age of 21 years and not above 32 years as on 1st January, 2025.

Odia language: Must be able to read, write & speak Odia and must have passed Middle English School Examination with Odia as language subject, or Matriculation with Odia as medium in non-language subjects, or Odia as language subject in Class VII or above, or passed Odia test in ME School Standard conducted by School & Mass Education Department.

Other eligibility: Must be a citizen of India, of good character, and if married must not have more than one spouse living except where exempted under applicable personal law.

Sportsperson: Applicants claiming reservation as Sportsperson must possess valid Sportsperson Identity Card issued by Sports & Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha as on date of submission of application and upload scanned original card.

Persons with Disabilities (PwDs): Must possess Permanent Disability Certificate / UDID card with not less than 40% disability in relevant category and sub-category, along with suitable physical requirements and functional classification as required for the post; must enter details in online application. Benchmark PwDs get compensatory time @ 20 minutes per hour in Written Test and may avail scribe with prior permission.

Ex-Servicemen: Must possess Identity Card / Discharge Certificate / documents supporting defence service and furnish undertaking that no re-employment under Government of Odisha has been availed earlier.

Excise Constable – Medical/Physical conditions: Must not have knock knee, bow legs, flat foot, varicose veins, squint in eyes, poor vision, colour blindness, inability to flex fingers properly, or other obvious deformities; no impediment in speech and hearing. Candidates with disability or deformity are not eligible for Excise Constable.

Forester/Forest Guard – PwD exclusion: No Persons with Disabilities shall be eligible for these posts except Leprosy Cured Persons and Acid Attack Victims as per prescribed reservation.

Salary/Stipend

Forester: Pay Scale ₹ 25500–81100, Pay Matrix Level-7, Cell-1 under Forest, Environment & Climate Change Department.

Forest Guard: Pay Scale ₹ 19900–63200, Pay Matrix Level-4, Cell-01 under Forest, Environment & Climate Change Department.

Excise Constable: Pay Scale ₹ 19900–63200, Pay Matrix Level-4, Cell-01 under Excise Department.

Age Limit (as on 01-01-2025)

Forester: Minimum 18 years and maximum 32 years.

Forest Guard: Age within 18–32 years as specified for the post; age reckoned as on 1st January, 2025.

Excise Constable: Must have attained age of 21 years and must not be above 32 years as on 1st January, 2025.

SC/ST/SEBC/Women: Upper age relaxable by 5 years.

Persons with Disabilities (PwDs): Upper age relaxable by 10 years.

Ex-Servicemen: Upper age relaxable by total period of defence service rendered, subject to not having more than six months of service remaining on last date of online application and conditions related to prior re-employment.

A candidate coming under more than one category is eligible for only one relaxation, which is most beneficial, except PwDs under SC/ST/SEBC who are entitled to cumulative 10 years relaxation over normal category relaxation as per Odisha Civil Service (Fixation of Upper Age Limit) Rules, 1989.

Application Fee

As per Odisha Payment of Recruitment Examination Fees and Refund Rules, 2025.

Candidates other than Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) shall pay Examination Fee of ₹ 500/- using Net Banking / Credit Card / Debit Card / UPI through Payment Gateway during online application.

SC, ST and PwDs candidates are exempted from payment of Examination Fee.

Examination Fee of ₹ 500/- paid shall be refunded to applicants who actually appear for the examination after conduct of examination and verification of attendance records.

Refund shall be credited to the bank account or payment method used at the time of registration; applicants are advised to use their own account to avoid inconvenience.

No refund shall be admissible to applicants who fail to appear in the examination for any reason whatsoever.

If Confirmation Page is not generated after payment, the transaction will be cancelled and amount refunded within 48 hours; applicants then need to make another payment/transaction to complete the application.

Important Dates

Selection Process

Stage-I: Written Test – 100 marks, MCQ type in OMR/CBRE mode, of minimum standard of High School Certificate Examination.

Written Test pattern: Mathematics (20 questions, 20 marks), General Studies (25 questions, 25 marks), English (20 questions, 20 marks), Odia (15 questions, 15 marks), Computer (20 questions, 20 marks); duration 1½ hours.

Negative marking: One-fourth (0.25) of marks for each question deducted for every wrong answer; more than one option marked is treated as wrong; no penalty for unattempted questions.

Minimum qualifying marks (Written): 30% for ST, SC, PwD, Ex-Servicemen and Sportsperson categories; 35% for all other candidates.

Questions and answer options of all segments will be bilingual (except English and Odia language subjects); in case of any confusion in Odia version, English version shall prevail.

In CBRE mode, examination may be held on multiple dates/shifts using multiple question sets; normalization formula will be adopted to convert raw scores into normalized scores.

Candidates may select maximum three preferred districts for test centre; Commission may allot another district depending on infrastructure / capacity.

For Excise Constable, bonus marks are awarded to candidates possessing NCC certificates: NCC ‘B’ Certificate – 01 mark; NCC ‘C’ Certificate – 02 marks.

Stage-II: Physical Test – Physical Standard Measurement (PSM) and Physical Efficiency Test (PET) for all three posts; number of candidates shortlisted for Physical Test shall not be less than 3 times the number of vacancies, category-wise, subject to Commission’s discretion.

Physical Standard Measurement – Forester/Forest Guard: Minimum Height and Chest as prescribed by category and gender (e.g., Men UR/SEBC/SC: 168 cm height, chest 81 cm unexpanded with up to 5 cm expansion; Men ST: 158 cm height; Women UR/SEBC/SC/ST: 153 cm height). Color blindness is disqualification.

Physical Standard Measurement – Excise Constable: Category-wise minimum Height, Weight and Chest (e.g., Men UR/SEBC: 168 cm height, 55 kg weight, chest 79–84 cm; Men SC/ST: 163 cm, 50 kg, 76–81 cm; Women UR/SEBC: 158 cm, 47.5 kg; Women SC/ST: 153 cm, 45 kg). Minimum 5 cm difference between unexpanded and expanded chest.

Physical Efficiency Test – Forester/Forest Guard: Male (all categories): Walking Test 25 km in 4 hours; Female (all categories): Walking Test 16 km in 4 hours.

Physical Efficiency Test – Excise Constable: Male: Running 1.6 km in 7 minutes and Long Jump 3.66 m in 3 attempts; Female: Running 1.6 km in 9 minutes and Long Jump 2.75 m in 3 attempts.

Failure to qualify in any PSM/PET event leads to disqualification from recruitment for the concerned post.

Merit Lists & Further Stages: Provisional Master Merit List of Written Test; Provisional Screening List for Physical Test; Provisional Merit List of Physical Test; Screening List for Document Verification; Document Verification by District Level Board; Counselling for post and district/circle/division choice; Post-wise, District/Circle/Division-wise Provisional Select Lists based on merit-cum-choice and availability.

OSSSC reserves the right to conduct additional/re-test for Written/Physical Test, reschedule tests, cancel part or whole of recruitment, and decide all matters of eligibility, selection and debarment.

General Information/Instructions

Applications are invited online through OSSSC website www.osssc.gov.in; applications other than online mode or incomplete applications shall be summarily rejected.

All eligibility conditions except age must be fulfilled as on the last date of submission of online application.

Provisional Admission / Intimation Letters for Written Test and Physical Test will be uploaded on the Commission’s website well before examination dates; dates of tests will also be advertised in local newspapers.

Candidates must download Admission / Intimation Letters from www.osssc.gov.in using their User ID & Password; no printed letters will be sent by post or any other mode.

Candidates should visit the Commission’s website at regular intervals for notices, exam schedules, results and other updates.

Information uploaded on the website will not be supplied under the RTI Act, 2005 and will remain there only for a specific period; candidates should download and keep necessary documents.

Candidature is purely provisional and liable to rejection at any stage for inadequacy, deficiency, misrepresentation, suppression, wrong information or use of unfair means.

Multiple application forms by a candidate are not allowed; such cases will lead to cancellation of result and will be treated as unfair means.

Candidates who fail to appear/qualify at any stage of the recruitment process shall not be considered for final selection.

The Commission shall sponsor exactly the same number of candidates as total vacancies advertised, category-wise, for each post as per merit and availability.

The decision of the Commission on eligibility, acceptance/rejection of applications, penalty, mode of selection, exam conduct, test centre allocation, preparation of merit lists, post allocation and debarment shall be final and binding; no correspondence will be entertained.

How to Apply

Visit OSSSC website www.osssc.gov.in and refer to “How do I register/re-register/apply” on the Home page for step-by-step procedure.

Registration (New User): Fresh candidates who have not registered earlier for any OSSSC recruitment must register by clicking “Apply Online” on the Home page and filling the Registration Form.

Re-registration (Registered User): Candidates already registered for any other OSSSC post with a User ID must login and select the “Re-registration” option under the Applicant Menu for this recruitment.

Mere Registration / Re-registration does not constitute submission of Online Application; candidates must login again, furnish all required data and submit the Online Application Form as guided by the system.

Incomplete applications shall be summarily rejected; no Admission Letter will be issued to candidates with incomplete applications or who do not fulfil eligibility criteria.

Pre-requisites: Payment of ₹ 500/- Examination Fee (for non-SC/ST/PwDs); scanned full specimen signature in jpg/jpeg/png (20–50 KB); scanned recent passport size colour photograph in jpg/jpeg/png (20–100 KB); certificates and mark sheets for entering educational details.

Photograph and signature must be clearly identifiable/visible; otherwise Registration / Application is liable to rejection.

Applicants must use their own valid personal e-mail ID and mobile number with validity till completion of recruitment for receiving Activation Key, alerts and Admission Letters; they should not share/change these details.

Submit Online Application well before the last date to avoid last-hour rush in the online application system.

OSSSC Forester, Forest Guard and Excise Constable Important Links

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