Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) was constituted in the year 1987 by renaming the erstwhile Indian Forest College, which was originally established in 1938 for training senior forest officers. It is situated in the New Forest campus of Forest Research Institute (FRI) on Chakrata Road (NH-72),five kilometers from Dehradun town. IGNFA is currently functioning as a Staff College for the officers of the Indian Forest Service (IFS).

The primary mandate of the Academy is to impart knowledge and skills to the professional foresters and help them to develop competence for managing the country forest and wildlife resources on a sustainable basis. In the Academy training is provided at different levels of seniority in the Indian Forest Service besides training the new entrants to the service.