Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit has become the brand ambassador for a charity project for the conservation of Asian elephants. She says recent human-elephant conflicts would not have happened if the tuskers had their space.

"Elephants are one of my favourite animals and I love them. So what we need to do today is to see how we can preserve our animals. I feel very strongly about this, " the 44-year-old actress said in a statement.

"Many instances of human-elephant conflict have been reported in the country. This would not have happened if elephants had their own space and humans had not cut forests for farmlands, settlements, industries, roads or railways, " she added.

Gemfields, an emerald mining company of Zambia, has collaborated with World Land Trust and Wildlife Trust of India to launch Emeralds for Elephants, a project that raises funds for protection of elephants in Asia. It has appointed Madhuri as the face of the project.

"What Gemfields is doing is that they are not only taking resources from our land, they mine here for emeralds, but they are also giving it back. That I think every person needs to do, " Madhuri said.