Habitat fragmentation also happens as a result of habitat loss and land conversion, whereby large habitats are divided into smaller, more isolated remnants. This causes some herds of elephants to be confined to small forest plots, causing them to not have a high survival likelihood in the long term.

Large-scale infrastructure projects such as the building of dams and roads, development of plantations  as well as expanding human settlements have also caused fragmentation of elephant habitats.

Fragmentation can also result in inbreeding as the smaller size of populations would signify that there potentially fewer mating partners for the elephants. This causes less genetic diversity which can make the population increasingly vulnerable. In the scenario that a genetic disorder is found present, the whole population would be susceptible to it because of their increased genetic similarity.