New Delhi, August 18
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said “multiple environmental crisis” confronting the country had created an alarming situation. Opening a day-long conference of environment ministers from all states, Singh said: “Climate change is threatening ecosystems. We are staring at the prospect of impending drought. Water scarcity is becoming a way of life and pollution is endangering our health.”

“Multiple environmental crises that confront our country have created an alarming situation,” he said, asking state governments to curtail pollution, clean rivers and fight climate change.

“We have to make fundamental changes in our lifestyles”, he said, while assuring that “challenges are not insurmountable”. In fact, the Prime Minister asked all states to prepare individual action plans on climate change consistent with strategies in the national plan.

Terming 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.

“There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that we fully recognise not just how important this issue is to our country’s future but also our own obligation to address it.” he said, apparently referring to criticism from developed nations that India was not doing enough to combat global warming. A recent report suggests that India contributes five per cent of global emissions, about a fourth of that of China and one-twentieth of the US.

The Prime Minister expressed concern that rivers all over India were still being degraded. Referring to the increased allocation in this year’s national budget to clean rivers, he asked state pollution control boards to curtail release of industrial effluents into waterways that account for 25 per cent of total pollution in rivers.