Surreal sight: Elephant spotted strolling through neighbourhood in Johor

A Johor resident had an unexpectedly elephantine visitor strolling through their neighbourhood a few nights ago.

Last Sunday (Jan 26), Malaysian Instagram page Kluang Hari Ini shared a clip of an elephant casually strolling along a road flanked by landed residential properties in the middle of the night.

While the exact location is unknown, Kluang Hari Ini noted that the elephant appeared somewhere in Taman Seri Impian, Kluang.

In the caption, the Instagram page added that the incident occurred at 2.13am.

Throughout the clip, the elephant seemed calm, waving its trunk as it walked past a number of parked cars.

It is unclear how the animal arrived at the neighbourhood and what occurred to it thereafter.

The video has since garnered more than 17,000 likes on Instagram and almost 700 comments as of the time of writing.

The comments section included a number of netizens concerned about the elephant's well-being.

"Such a pity seeing it look so sad, hopefully it receives some help," a netizen commented.

Some commenters also lamented the loss of natural habitat leading to situations like this, though it is not clear if the elephant spotted in the video was such a victim.

"Poor thing. Habitat destroyed and it's so confused. I hope it wasn't hurt by anyone and finds its way back to a safe place," another Instagram user wrote.

One netizen claimed: "Many say that the elephant is lost but not many say that human beings are the lost ones who have entered their location."

According to a New Straits Times article last June, habitat loss in Johor due to land use changes for agricultural activities and infrastructure development, among others, has led to "human-elephant" encounters.

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amierul@asiaone.com