The post of Director Forest Education was created in the year 1953 to assist the President, Forest Research Institute and college with it rested the responsibility for professional and technical training / education in the country. Subsequent to reorganization of Forest Research Institute and Colleges and creation of Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) as an autonomous organization, under the Ministry of Environment and Forests in the year 1991, the Directorate of Forest Education was dilinked from the Forest Research Institute and Colleges. Since then it is functioning directly under the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

In order to meet the increasing demand of the State Forest Departments and Central forestry organization for trained Officers, three State Forest Service Colleges were established by the Central Government at Burhihat (Assam) in 1976, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) in 1980 and Dehradun (Uttarakhand) in 1981 for imparting training to the State Forest Service Officers of two years duration.

The Forest Rangers Training in India is over 100 years old. It was imparted up to 1978 centrally through the following Rangers Colleges: 

These Colleges were being managed by the Government of India and had a training programme of two years. Need for more trained manpower was felt in order to meet the increased demand for training Range Forest Officers, the training of Forest Rangers was de-centralized and six more rangers Colleges were opened by some State Government. In the year 1987, the Government of India decided that responsibility of imparting Rangers Training be given up and the State Government Should make their own arrangement for such Training. As a consequence, Rangers Colleges run by the Government of India closed in a phased manner.