The proposal to constitute a Provincial Service was first mooted in 1891 with a view to meet the increased demand for trained officers at a comparatively lower cost. This service was to form a link between the Imperial Service and the Subordinate Executive Service. In the early years of the inauguration of service, young men mostly of European extraction came into the Service but instructions were soon issued to confine recruitment to the promotion of Rangers of proved meritorious service only.

When the FRI at Dehradun came into existence in 1906, the status of the Imperial Forest School, which had been training Rangers since 1878, was raised to that of a college, called the Imperial Forest College and, in the same year, a third-year course was introduced for training selected Rangers for admission to the Provincial Service.

The training of the gazetted officers of the Forest Department remained suspended from 1933 to 1938 when demand for training such officers arose again. Forest was by then a transferred subject under the control of the various provinces and princely states and recruitment to the Indian Forest Service had ceased. Superior Forest Service was created in the States to replace the Indian Forest Service and a course of training for these officers was started in 1938 at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. The first batch consisted of 16 students. The College was named the Indian Forest College and was in one of the blocks of the main building of the Institute.

The Superior Forest Service course continued in the college up to the year 1975. Consequent upon the constitution of Indian Forest Service with effect from 1.10.1966, the subsequent course for the training of State Forest Service officers in the Indian Forest College was termed as State Forest Service course. Initially, the training of Indian Forest Service probationers was conducted combined with the State Forest Service officers from 1971-73 to 1973-75. However, for the Indian Forest Service probationers, additional lectures on certain subjects were included in the course. For the courses 1976-78 onwards, separate courses are being conducted for the Indian Forest Service probationers and foreign trainees in the Indian Forest College, Dehradun. With the separation of the classes of the State Forest Service and the Indian Forest Service, a separate college for the training of State Forest Service officers was started at Burnihat in Assam in May 1976.

To cope with the increase in demand of trained State Forest Service officers, a second State Forest Service college was started at Coimbatore in January 1980. Subsequently, the third State Forest Service college was opened at Dehradun in May 1981.

On 6th August 2009 all the three State Forest Service colleges at Dehradun, Coimbatore and Burnihat were renamed as Central Academy for State Forest Service (CASFOS). At present, there are three Central Academies for State Forest Services in India. All are under the direct control of the Directorate of Forest Education (DFE), Dehradun under the Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change, Government of India. The Academy at Burnihat, Assam was the first to be set up in India in May 1976. The Academy at Dehradun was the third and so far, the last Academy to be set up. It was established in the New Forest campus on 01.05.198l.