Most Komodo dragons - about 1,727 of them - live on their namesake Komodo Island, but there are in fact more than 20 islands in Komodo National Park.

The other sizeable population of dragons live on Rinca Island. Jessop says that the governor’s other concern, that the Komodos’ primary prey of deer is under threat, also seems ill-founded.

He says that while the national park is secure in some places and not in others, there doesn’t seem to be sustained poaching that would affect the dragons.

Park ranger Stefanus Jalak agrees that the deer now seem better protected.

“Deer hunting has got much less, and the community now understands,” he says, “but sometimes we have to work with police and the military to stop it.”

Komodo village, once just a tiny row of huts on the shore, is now home to about 2,000 people in the bay.

Guest houses have been built here, there is now electricity at night provided by generators, and plastic waste from the street stalls litters the beach.

Some 70% of the community on Komodo Island make their living from tourism, and the idea of fewer people coming is disastrous to them.

“We don’t want to move! We don’t disturb the habitat of the Komodo,” says Rosa Saphira, 17.

“Komodos and humans live in harmony here. We can work with the governor to better protect the Komodo - we don’t have to be moved away.”

Nur, who runs one of the stalls at the souvenir market, says she is really worried about what the future might hold. She says losing income from tourism would be difficult as the islanders don’t have the means to return to their original hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

“We don’t have fishing boats anymore, we can’t hunt and we have no land,” she says.

Local guide Abdul Gafur Kasim fears that if the villagers felt forced to return to hunting and fishing, it could be worse for the environment.

“The villagers will be forced to go back to the sea, and they might start using unsustainable methods again to catch the fish, like using bombs, and that will destroy the park’s marine life. Or they will go back to the forest and carry out illegal logging.”