The Saaja, Arjun, and Saal trees, which are available plenty in the forests, will now be used for the production of tusser on them. To start with, 2000 hectare area of forests has been identified for tusser production this year. Forest Minister Sartaj Singh said that through this important programme, the trees standing idly in the forests would be used for tusser production. At the same time people living in the vicinity of forests will get additional income without damaging the trees. The Forest Minister said that out of the 2000 hectares selected, 380 hectares will be in Mandla district, 170 hectares will be in Dindori district, 540 hectares in Narsinghpur district, 400 hectares will be in Burhanpur district, 100 hectares in Vidisha district, 200 hectares in Hoshangabad district and 250 hectares in Balaghat district. Preparations are going on for starting tusser production work from the month of July this year. Singh said that the regional forest committees would take up the matter of tusser production with technical cooperation from the sericulture department. In the selected areas, with the cooperation of sericulture department, high quality tusser eggs will be planted on the trees of selected areas. The sericulture department will train the concerned forest committee members for the maintenance and other jobs of the production. The sericulture department will purchase the cocoons produced from these areas. When the production of cocoon is sufficient, in adjacent villages cottage industries will be established for producing silk thread and cloths. The Central Sericulture Board will give 50 per cent subsidy to purchase machineries to start the cottage industries. He said that a plan has been chalked out to spread tusser production to 32,000 hectares of forest by the year 2013. The tusser producing States in the country have been divided into traditional and non-traditional classes. Madhya Pradesh comes into non-traditional class. The State is fourth in States of non-traditional production of tusser. During the year 2009-2010 the State produced 5.7 crores tusser cocoons. Out of this 4.5 crores tusser cocoons were collected from the forests where it is produced through natural process. This forest is spread in an area of 10 thousand hectares. Tusser production can be increased considerably in the State through organised and sponsored ways.