A week ago, a video showing a young elephant pulling a big log went viral on social media. This video draws a lot of anger and grief from many people. The problem shown in the video is not just about animal slavery, but the loss of habitat for wild animals as well.

Not so long after the video went viral, another viral elephant emerged. An elephant in Thailand broke into people's homes because of hunger. According to some news, one of the conservation officers in the forest stated, "It could also be because hunters put traps in the forest and disturbed the elephants and made the elephant move from the deep forest towards residential areas."

In early 2021, an innocent 40-year-old elephant died after being set on fire in Tamil Nadu, India. This incident is again related to their natural habitat being increasingly destroyed by humans, which makes it difficult for them to find food to survive.

More and more constructions are happening in places that are supposed to be a home for these elephants and other animals. In reality, conflicts arise that are generally caused by the change in land use and habitat functions that eventually trigger wild animals' emergence to enter residential areas. According to the BBC, 1.9 million km² of land has been lost since 2000. It causes about 1 million wildlife species threatened with extinction. 

It's hard for some people to grasp why the emergence of wild animals into residential areas and the extinction of wild animals are signs that our environment is threatened, and that's not just bad news for the animals but for us humans as well. The simple explanation is, the forest is a home for wildlife and should be nothing more. 

The wildlife that lives in the forests has its own ecosystem and way of survival. If humans continue to carry out deforestation, many animals will lose their food sources, elephants, for example. Elephants as herbivores will find it difficult to get food, which causes them to look for food in residential areas, which can eventually lead to the extinction of the elephants themselves.

Not only elephants. If the population of elephants and other animals decreases, this also makes carnivorous animals such as tigers lose their food sources, which in turn can make them approach residential areas and can actually take lives. The emergence of wild animals into residential areas has happened every so often.

Unfortunately, even though it has often happened, there are still many people who see these animals as a problem and a threat, while in fact, these animals would not approach residential areas if they had enough food sources in their homes, but now, these animals barely have any home at all. Within a year, at least three devastating news stories about animals kept appearing. Sadly, this news just passed and will keep on happening with or without our knowledge.