Viktor has proposed closing Komodo Island - the main destination where tourists can see Komodo dragons - for a year from January 2020 to rehabilitate it. Under his plan foreign tourists would be charged hundreds of dollars to see the dragons in the wild when the island reopened. However there are fears closing Komodo Island for a year would hurt tourism given visitors come from all over the world to see the rare iconic species. "Yes, there are concerns," Viktor acknowledges. "But when we reopen I think they will get more money." The decision ultimately lies with the central government. It manages Komodo National Park, which was founded in 1980 to protect the dragons, and includes Komodo and Rinca islands.

East Nusa Tenggara Governor Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat. Credit:Jewel Topsfield Viktor would like to see management of the park handed over to the East Nusa Tenggara provincial administration. He wants Komodo Island to be replenished with populations of Timor deer - the dragons’ main food source - which he said were being illegally poached. While the island was closed, Viktor said he wanted to work with universities to monitor the dragons, and to undertake some genetic engineering to make them bigger. Loading

But the head of the Komodo National Park, Lukita Awang, said there was a stable population of about 2900 dragons in the park. Lukita said it was not true that there were declining numbers of deer, although he acknowledged there was some poaching. “Six per cent of Komodo food is eating each other,” he said. Lukita said the size of the dragons varied depending on the size of the island on which they lived. Dragons on the bigger islands of Komodo and Rinca could grow up to three metres long but those on the smaller islands of Nusa Kode and Gili Motang, which had less deer, were smaller.

Komodo dragons: worth a premium to see them. Credit:Shutterstock More than 100,000 tourists visit Komodo National Park every year, the majority are foreigners. Lukita agreed the number of tourists should be limited. “We must consider the environmental capacity,” he said. Viktor said he wanted to restrict visitors to Komodo Island to 50,000 a year. “I hope if a [foreign tourist] comes to Komodo Island, they have to pay $US1000 [$1450] a year,” Viktor said. (He previously suggested $US500 according to local media reports.)

Either would be a hefty increase on the current price of a ranger-guided tour of Komodo or Rinca islands - up to about $45 for foreign tourists. Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar will make a decision on the temporary closure of Komodo Island by the end of the year. It will be based on the recommendation of a government team, which will conduct a field trip in June and meet with stakeholders. Journalist Jewel Topsfield with a Komodo dragon. Credit: Under Viktor’s plan, the 2000 locals who live on the island would also be temporarily relocated to another island.

Tour guide Ikhsan Abdul Amir, who lives on Komodo Island, said the plan had caused anxiety among locals, many of whom relied on tourism for their livelihood. “It is not easy to change us to fishermen again,” Ikhsan said. “If we are relocated, will the government help us get a job for instance?” He believed Viktor had seen an old dragon when he visited Komodo Island, which had looked thin and small. “I think the size of the dragons has stayed the same all these years,” he said. Marta Muslin, from the West Manggarai chapter of the Association of Indonesia Travel Agencies, said she supported a hike in fees. “The money could be used for conservation works and for police to patrol the island so there would be no illegal poaching of deer,” she said. “How much the increase would be should be based on a study.”

A Komodo dragon, or Varanus komodensis, on the beach on Komodo Island, Indonesia. Credit:Shutterstock However Marta said she opposed the idea of temporarily closing down Komodo Island, which many people thought was already a fait accompli. “I was told that 600 trips from Asia, Europe and the US to Komodo Island this year were cancelled,” she said. “The governor’s statement has directly affected 4550 workers in the tourism industry in West Manggarai regency.” Under the plan the dragons on Rinca Island would be transferred over time to Komodo island, so there would be only one main dragon destination. Deakin University ecologist Dr Tim Jessop has researched Komodo dragons for decades as the scientific advisor to the Bali-based Komodo Survival Program.

Komodo dragons in Rinca island could be transported to Komodo Island under the controversial plan. Credit:Shutterstock Jessop said regulating tourism numbers was a worthwhile exercise and noted the success of the Galapagos Islands, which charges foreign tourists $US100 to visit the archipelago to help protect the fragile ecosystem. However he warned that dragons on Rinca and Komodo islands had been separated for 70,000 years and had different genetic make-ups. “Translocating dragons would only ever be an option if there was evidence of a very large population crash,” he said. “Translocating the dragons from Rinca to Komodo could bring diseases and do more harm than good.” Jessop welcomed initiatives to protect the species but said it was possible they could be achieved without temporarily closing Komodo Island.

These could include increasing security to prevent poaching, ensuring tourists were restricted to walking trails, removing plastic in the ocean and proceeding carefully with any tourism resort development within the national park. Komodo dragons were first documented by Europeans in 1910. Recent fossil evidence from Queensland, dated from 300,000 years ago to roughly four million years ago, suggests the Komodo dragon actually evolved in Australia before spreading to Indonesia.