Shimla, Aug 18 - Himachal Pradesh Tuesday requested the central government to include the state in the National River Conservation Programme as most of the rivers in northern states originate from it.

State Environment Minister J.P. Nadda raised the issue at the meeting of environment and forest ministers in New Delhi, an official statement said.

Nadda also demanded the setting up of corpus for developing environment infrastructure and sought special funds for the Himalayan states for preserving nature. He also stressed the need for creating mechanism for 'green accounting'.

He also requested the centre to start centrally-sponsored schemes to study the impact of climate change on forests and vegetation.

Himachal Pradesh is known as a storehouse of biodiversity. It supports 25 percent of the country's mammalian fauna.

The Zoological Survey of India in its report, 'Fauna of Western Himalaya', has recorded 447 species of birds and 107 species of mammals in the hill state.