New Delhi, Aug 18 - The 'multiple environmental crises that confront our country have created an alarming situation', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Tuesday, while asking state governments to curtail pollution, clean rivers and fight climate change.

Opening a daylong conference of environment ministers from all state governments, Manmohan Singh said: 'Climate change is threatening our ecosystems, water scarcity is becoming a way of life and pollution is endangering our health.'

'We have to make fundamental choices about our lifestyles,' the prime minister said, assuring his audience that the 'challenges are not insurmountable'.

Describing climate change as a 'major global challenge', he said India was conscious of its 'responsibility to present and future generations' and would ensure the 'ecological sustainability of its development path'.

Manmohan Singh sought the cooperation of all state governments to implement the eight missions that the centre has outlined under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. He asked the assembled ministers to have state level action plans in concordance with the national plan.

The prime minister also called upon state governments to modernise their forest departments and to fill up vacant posts, pointing out that many states would now get huge funding for compensatory afforestation projects, as the Supreme Court has recently unfrozen over Rs.9,000 crore meant for this. The money was lying in escrow accounts for over seven years.

Welcoming the prime minister, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said the first tranche of these funds, Rs.400 crore, had been transferred to 10 states Tuesday morning, and Rs.1,000 crore would be transferred 'in the next few days'.

Manmohan Singh underlined the 'need to ensure that local communities benefit from forest conservation. Tribals have guarded our forests for centuries. Their wisdom and experience should be utilised for conservation rather than turning them into environmental refugees'.