Komodo National Park
The Komodo National Park is a national park in Indonesia. It is on several islands in the Lesser Sunda Islands. The park is in the area between the East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara provinces. The park includes three larger islands: Komodo, Padar and Rincah. It also includes 26 smaller ones for a total area of 1,733 km² (603 km² of it land). The national park was founded in 1980 to protect the Komodo dragon. This animal is the world’s largest lizard. Later it began protecting other species, including some in the ocean. In 1991 the national park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Geography and climate
The park is spread over several islands. It includes part of western coast of Flores, the three larger islands of Komodo, Padar, Rincah, and 26 smaller islands. It also includes ocean areas such as the Sape Straights. The islands of the national park are volcanic. The land is generally rugged, with some rounded hills to 735m. The climate is one of the driest of Indonesia. Each year between 800mm and 1000mm of rain falls in the park area. Temperatures in the dry season from May to October are around 40 °C.
Plants and animals
The Park is hot and dry. There are many savannah plants that make it a good place for the Komodo dragon.
Cloud forests are in only a few areas above 500 metres. These forests are good places for some local plants. There are mangrove forests in some of the quiet bays of the three larger islands.
Large and complex coral reefs are along the north-east coast of Komodo. The park has many animals that live in the ocean, including whale sharks, ocean sunfish, manta rays, eagle rays, pygmy seahorse, false pipefish, clown frogfish, nudibranchs, blue-ringed octopus, sponges, tunicates, and coral.
Image:Komodo dragon Nick Hobgood.jpg|Komodo dragons Image:Giant clam tridacna komodo small.jpg|Dark brown giant clam Image:Cuttlefish komodo large.jpg|Large cuttlefish Image:Cleaner station komodo.jpg|Cleaner station under a table coral
Conservation
The island of Padar and part of Rinca were made nature reserves in 1938. Komodo Island became a nature reserve in 1965. UNESCO also began to protect the island in 1977. The three islands were named a national park in 1980,. The park was extended to include the nearby parts of the ocean and a part of Flores in 1984. In 1991 the national park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 1995, the national park authority has been supported by an American environmental organization called The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
Komodo National Park has been selected as one of 28 finalists to become one of the New7Wonders of Nature.
People living in the park and tourism
About 4,000 people live within the park. Scuba diving is popular because of the many different kinds of life living in the water. Ecotourism in the ocean is the main way to get money to support the park
However, several fishermen died since the 1980s. People disagree about what happened to them. Park patrol and military said they needed to protect themselves. Fishermen living in the area say the park management killed the fishermen on purpose.
Written for younger readers
Komodo National Park, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: World Heritage Sites
Komodo National Park is located within Indonesia. It is made up of 3 large islands which are named Komodo, Pandar and Rinca as well as 26 smaller ones. The total area of the Park is 1733 square kilometers. In 1980, the park was set up to protect the world largest Lizard called the Komodo Dragon. Inside the park, there are other endangered (which means they are about to disappear from Earth) animals. By setting up the park, all these animals can be protected from harm by humans as they cannot be captured and their living environment can be protected. In 1991, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site. The waters surrounding the islands have many species of fishes, corals as well as marine creatures living in it. The entire Park was named as one of the new 7 Wonders of Nature. The Park is now open to tourist to visit and about 36,000 to 45,000 visitors visit the park yearly.
File:Komodo Islands.jpg|The islands receive very little rain throughout the year so it’s one of the driest part of Indonesia File:Komodo dragon stalking deer.png|A picture of a Komodo dragon trying to prey (eat) a deer. File:Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis).jpg|A picture of a Komodo dragon
Komodo National Park
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Komodo National Park” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
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