Habitat Loss: A momentous threat

You leave for work early in the morning,

Work hard the whole day just for your family,

You fulfil your responsibilities by providing them food, shelter and everything else in your power,

But, you come back to see that the place you once called your home has been turned to rubbles. How will it feel to be in a familiar yet unfamiliar surroundings ? You don’t know where to find your family and you don’t know where and with whom you will have to spend the rest of your life.

This blog is about another true story of the repercussions of the selfish needs of humans which is taking away the habitats of many animals every single day. Today, wildlife on our planet is under a serious peril and the major reason is Habitat Loss. Wildlife habitats in the world are being destroyed at a rate of approximately 5760 acres per day and 240 acres every hour.

The primary effect of habitat loss is reduction in biodiversity. When an animal loses its natural habitat, it becomes vulnerable and stresses out which can also lead to death. Losing their shelter makes them easy target for predators and humans thus tampers with the ecological balance. Rapidly its numbers decline and it moves towards extinction. The major threat among wildlife is to the endemic species due to habitat loss. Endemic species are plants and animals that are found in a particular geographical region and nowhere else in the world. For example the Lion Tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus) found in the Western Ghats is under a menace due to habitat loss, this puts them in the IUCN Red List of threatened species for the sixth time. As per the report, their wild population could be about only 4000 individual, consisting of less than 2500 mature individuals. This species is expected to suffer an estimated decline of 20 percent in the next 25 years due to poaching, habitat loss, etc.

The main activities causing habitat destruction are urbanization, industrialization, conversion of land for developmental activities and for agriculture, deforestation, pollution, etc. Humanity has wiped out 60 percent of wildlife since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilization. “We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff” said Mike Barrett, executive director of Science and Conservation at WWF. “If there was a 60 percent decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done.”

It is not only the birds and terrestrial animals that are under serious peril but also marine animals. Wet lands, swamps and marshes which are situated at the coastal areas i.e. an easy access to humans, serve as a breeding ground and nurseries for many marine species are filled to accommodate population increasing at an alarming rate, industries and some parts are used for agricultural purposes. The inability to breed and excessive pollution from these areas threatens almost all the marine animals.

Habitat loss has been identified as a major threat to 85 percent of all species described in the IUCN Red List. Animals like the Mountain Gorilla, Tiger, Indian Elephant, Whale, Orangutan, White Rhinoceros, Sea Turtle, Red Panda and African Wild Dogs are under serious threat due to habitat destruction and poaching. If this continues then most of the animals, we have the privilege to see today will only be stories to our next generation. 

It’s an eerie that from an early age we are taught about habitat loss and its impacts but never about the actions we can take to protect it. We have to stop being so selfish about our personal interest and realize that we will have to suffer the long term consequences of habitat loss. We know what is habitat loss, we know its impacts and we know how its increasing every single day, then lets start today to conserve and protect them.