Degraded bamboo forests in 7,800 hectare area were upgraded by 789 beneficiary families during the year 2011 under land erosion prevention project being implemented in the State with the cooperation of United Nations Development Programme. This project is being implemented in Betul, Chhindwara, Sidhi, Singrauli and Umaria districts of the State. Singh informed that beneficiary families have been identified under the project for upgrading the degraded bamboo forest. About 500 clusters of bamboo in five hectare area are allotted to each beneficiary family for upgradation for a time period of one year. Thus, every family will be allotted 2,000 bamboo clusters in 20 hectare area in the next four years. Besides, every beneficiary family is also being given Rs 2,500 per month through bank accounts. He said that the allotted bamboo clusters will start giving income to the beneficiary families after upgradation in four years. This income will be given to the beneficiary families as per provisions of Joint Forest Management, which will lead to improvement in their financial condition. Thus, along with conservation and augmentation of bamboo forest, the project is also providing additional source of livelihood to the beneficiary families.