Mumbai, Aug 8 (IANS): Ahead of World Elephant Day August 12, actress Richa Chadha has urged People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to ask India's railway ministry to implement safety measures to prevent elephant deaths on train tracks.

In a letter to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal Richa said: "Recently, a speeding train struck and killed a family of elephants in Odisha, adding to a toll that makes India the nation with the highest number of train accidents involving elephants."

The 31-year-old actress has requested "that among the solutions implemented, states be required to survey and monitor railway lines for elephant activity and to reduce and restrict train speeds in corridors frequented by these animals in order to save lives."

Richa notes in her letter, Asian elephants are considered to be endangered, and there are at most only 50,000 of them left worldwide. Yet between 2016 and 2017, dozens of them were killed in India because of trains, and over the years, the number of these types of deaths has been increasing.

In a span of 23 years - from 1987 to 2010 - 150 elephants died while crossing railway tracks, but in only eight years, from 2009 to 2017, 120 were killed in the same way, a statement from PETA read.