On Komodo island The very first Komodo dragon I saw inside the wild would be a gorgeous adult female, blocking the trail as a two-metre-long sentinel in Indonesia’s Komodo national park. For a while, inside my awed mind, she would be a mythical dragon demanding payment for passage. However this thought was quickly scuttled as two tourists raced in front to capture a selfie using the apex predator. The agitated dragon ran off straight into the underbrush – they had been lucky she didn’t run another way and bite off one among their legs. I’d travelled lots and lots of miles to discover a Komodo dragon and it also had just been scared away by reckless travellers.
Now, a significant upgrade of Labuan Bajo regional airport is placed to create more tourists towards the 29 islands that constitute the Unesco-protected park, potentially threatening its eponymous beast. The airport designed to handle 150, 000 tourists a year ; now it may accommodate 1. 5 million, using its new terminal and lengthened runway. Garuda Indonesia now flies there at weekends from Bajawa and Denpasar.
Komodo is really a volcanic island inside the Flores Sea.
The world’s largest lizard, the Komodo dragon is arguably Indonesia’s best-conserved large animal. Protected under Indonesian law, the population is relatively stable with around 2, 500 animals inside the park and another 2, 000 on larger Flores island, though this population faces habitat loss. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s populations of orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos always plummet as rainforest is destroyed for palm oil, mining, timber and paper industries.
People here truly appreciate the dragon, my guide, Arman Rikardus, told me. He said increasing tourism meant that locals like him didn’t need to transfer to Bali to locate work, although they‘ve witnessed an abrupt rise in inflation as the amount of people moving to Labuan Bajo pushed up the price of food and housing.
He also warned that in case tourism gets from control, the interest in new infrastructure could cut straight into the dragon’s already limited habitat. At present, lower than 10% from the national park is really open to the general public, so most of the dragons can live out their lives without ever running into your selfie-snapper.
Komodo National Park entrance sign
The govt hopes to mitigate the impact of more tourists : entrance fees for foreigners were recently increased sharply – each day pass with tax now costs between £10 and £15, plus an additional £5 for any guide – inside a bid to raise more revenue. The park has also stopped the practice of feeding goats to dragons for tourist entertainment.
Currently, the most important threat towards the dragons is that the poaching of deer which is the prey, and also the rise of human populations. The species shares the park with nearly 4, 000 people, a lot of whom supplement their incomes by selling curios and snacks to tourists. The dragon dominates the food chain and underpins the local economy.
The local government hopes that tourists will start venturing beyond dragons : Flores hosts several stunning volcanoes, rare birds, and also the cave where scientists discovered homo floresiensis – Flores man, also referred to as hobbit of Indonesia. The region has the best diving and snorkelling upon the planet. For everything, the Komodo dragon remains the star attraction : outside the new airport sits a massive statue from the area’s favourite resident. You are able to have a selfie using this one without the chance of losing a limb.
Now, a significant upgrade of Labuan Bajo regional airport is placed to create more tourists towards the 29 islands that constitute the Unesco-protected park, potentially threatening its eponymous beast. The airport designed to handle 150, 000 tourists a year ; now it may accommodate 1. 5 million, using its new terminal and lengthened runway. Garuda Indonesia now flies there at weekends from Bajawa and Denpasar.
Komodo is really a volcanic island inside the Flores Sea.
The world’s largest lizard, the Komodo dragon is arguably Indonesia’s best-conserved large animal. Protected under Indonesian law, the population is relatively stable with around 2, 500 animals inside the park and another 2, 000 on larger Flores island, though this population faces habitat loss. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s populations of orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos always plummet as rainforest is destroyed for palm oil, mining, timber and paper industries.
People here truly appreciate the dragon, my guide, Arman Rikardus, told me. He said increasing tourism meant that locals like him didn’t need to transfer to Bali to locate work, although they‘ve witnessed an abrupt rise in inflation as the amount of people moving to Labuan Bajo pushed up the price of food and housing.
He also warned that in case tourism gets from control, the interest in new infrastructure could cut straight into the dragon’s already limited habitat. At present, lower than 10% from the national park is really open to the general public, so most of the dragons can live out their lives without ever running into your selfie-snapper.
Komodo National Park entrance sign
The govt hopes to mitigate the impact of more tourists : entrance fees for foreigners were recently increased sharply – each day pass with tax now costs between £10 and £15, plus an additional £5 for any guide – inside a bid to raise more revenue. The park has also stopped the practice of feeding goats to dragons for tourist entertainment.
Currently, the most important threat towards the dragons is that the poaching of deer which is the prey, and also the rise of human populations. The species shares the park with nearly 4, 000 people, a lot of whom supplement their incomes by selling curios and snacks to tourists. The dragon dominates the food chain and underpins the local economy.
The local government hopes that tourists will start venturing beyond dragons : Flores hosts several stunning volcanoes, rare birds, and also the cave where scientists discovered homo floresiensis – Flores man, also referred to as hobbit of Indonesia. The region has the best diving and snorkelling upon the planet. For everything, the Komodo dragon remains the star attraction : outside the new airport sits a massive statue from the area’s favourite resident. You are able to have a selfie using this one without the chance of losing a limb.
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