Forest is the second largest land use in India next to agriculture. Protection and management of the forests in India have, at different points in the nation’s history, been under a set of rules and regulations by different dynasties. Forestry research in India is one of the oldest in the tropical world. Indian forestry research was looked upon as a model for other countries in the region. When Forest Departments were established in the several British provinces during the early 1960s, scientific forestry got its start in India. Dietrich Brandis’s appointment as the Inspector General of Forests in 1864 marked the start of the scientific era in forest management. With the advent of scientific management of forests, it became clear that organized research was necessary to facilitate proper conservation and utilization of forests in India. Dehradun has been the center of forestry education since 1884, when Imperial Forest College was established, to train rangers and foresters. It later came to be known as the Imperial Forest Research Institute, which was set up in 1906 by the Government of India for preparing a professional forestry course of high standard for the officers. Forestry research in Imperial Forest Research Institute during the pre-Independence period had two broad disciplines, viz. biological research and forest products research. The biological research discipline had silviculture, botany, and entomology as its various branches, which conducted experimental silviculture and statistical research, preparation of forest floras, and studies on forest insect pest. The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, or ICFRE, was established in 1986 as a national umbrella organization to handle the needs of the nation for forestry research, teaching, and extension. Several significant accomplishments have been made since organized forestry research in India first started. These include introducing novel silvicultural techniques, improving planting stock production methods, managing diseases and pests, introducing high-yielding clones, and introducing exotic species to increase forest productivity. The National Commission on Agriculture (NCA 1976), a division of the Ministry of Agriculture, proposed the establishment of forestry education in India in 1976 with the goal of improving forest conservation, managing natural resources, and safeguarding the environment. This proposal was later included in the National Forest Policy of India (1988). India first launched university-level forestry education at Solan, Himachal Pradesh, in 1976. Following this, forestry programs were introduced by numerous agricultural universities in 1985 under the auspices of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) system (ICAR 2009). The nation’s knowledge of biodiversity, ecology, and shared ground management can be strengthened, diversified, and integrated with the support of forestry education. Similarly, ICFRE has been periodically formulating and updating the forestry extension strategy for the country. Recently the “Extension Strategies in Forestry Research” was formulated for the country by ICFRE in 2011. Adopting comprehensive, cross-sectoral methods to research, teaching, and extension is necessary in light of the rising environmental issues and rising global expectations from forests in the framework of the sustainable development goals. The nation has a largely good institutional framework in place to handle concerns related to forestry research and teaching under the specialized missions of already-existing institutes. To guarantee sufficient coverage of forestry concerns and to prevent duplication or overlap of efforts, these institutions’ inter-sectoral coordination and networking must be improved. The historical development of scientific forestry is covered in this chapter, along with the main concerns of forestry research, teaching, and extension in India.