can only be found in a tiny corner of Indonesia.
Tourists flock to see them but authorities want to return
Komodo Island to the dragons.
They have survived here for hundreds of thousands of years.
Komodo dragons, with a venomous bite, live here on just a handful
of small islands in Indonesia.
Arriving at Komodo Island, home of the world's largest lizards,
the only place you will find these dragons anywhere in the world.
Incredible, almost prehistoric scenes here.
The villagers that live amongst the Dragons believe
they are spiritually and physically related to them.
But this human-dragon relationship may all be about to change.
An increasing amount of visitors now flock here to see
this iconic species.
Welcome.
And this man, the powerful governor of the region,
wants to close Komodo Island to mass tourism, and expel the villagers,
making the island a home only for the Dragons.
There is just one village here on Komodo Island,
home to around 2000 people.
The community is a mixture of different ethnic groups from
across the Indonesian archipelago.
They speak their own language, Komodo, and they have a centuries
old history with the dragons.
Like most Indonesians, this man is a devout Muslim, who has
made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The connection with Komodos here is not a matter of faith,
he insists, but history.
The villagers tell the story of the Princess who lived on Komodo,
and who people call Dragon Princess, or Putri Naga.
She married a man named Nago and bore him twins.
One was a baby boy, and the other, a baby dragon.
Komodo dragons reach ten feet in length and can weigh upwards of 300
pounds. They have sharp teeth and a poisonous venom, and a powerful tale
to bring down any prey.
But the community here says they haven't lived in fear.
Whilst still being very rare, there are unprovoked attacks
by the Komodo dragons.
There are no official records, but the national park authorities
say there have been 15 attacks in the last ten years...
Just one that resulted in the death of a human.
This farmer shows me where he was sleeping
in what used to be his house, here amongst his fruit trees,
when he was attacked.
Villagers who heard him screaming put him on a boat
and rushed him to hospital.
He shows me his scars from the bite marks, 15 in total.
But he has moved his house closer to the others along the shore.
The Komodo Island community insists that before their village became
part of the National Park in 1980, their relationship with the dragons
was much friendlier.
Europeans who arrived in the 1900s took images
of the Komodo village, then, a row of huts in the bay,
and noted their coexistence with the dragons.
Australian academics released a report last year that found
the dragons do better, they are bigger and heavier,
when living around humans, because of access to food scraps.
But Komodo dragons are now listed as vulnerable to extinction,
and hunting of the dragons' prey is outlawed in this place
that is now a World Heritage area.
Wow, most of Komodo National Park is actually ocean, 70% of it,
and then, there are five main islands like this one,
that are dotted amongst the sea.
That makes it quite a hard National Park for the authorities
to monitor what is going on here.
It's rangers like Stephen's job to protect the park.
The villagers insist they had stopped hunting, and they don't feed
the Komodos anymore.
Now, it's the dragons that are providing this community.
It's 7am, and as the park opens, the tourists begin to arrive.
Today, a cruise ship carrying more than 3000 people
has docked in the bay.
The visitors begin to pull ashore.
Folks, we have some nice cold water here, if you like.
Get yourself a little hydrated before the walk.
Wow, it's already really busy here.
Yes.
Abdul is one of the many local guides from the Komodo
community, waiting for them.
Like looking for the dragon, they say the Komodo dragon
is like the dinosaurs, but Komodo dragons are small,
How do you feel, seeing all of these people coming
here and this increased tourism?
I mean, this is where you get your livelihood from, isn't it?
The dragons certainly have more visitors than they did
when they first met European explorers in the early 20th century.
There's a steady stream of tour groups coming in here,
each given around five minutes to take photos, and then
they are told to move on to make way for the next one.
In 2010, just under 50,000 people visited the Komodo National Park.
That jumped to nearly 300,000 last year.
Keep looking right over there, within the trees.
Herman has come all the way from Turkey to see them.
It's amazing.
How do you feel, seeing the Komodo dragons?
I can't describe to you, I was so excited.
My husband told me there was a dragon like this
and I didn't believe him.
But then we got the tickets, we were like, it is true.
It's so beautiful.
But scary, too.
But safe, because they give you the tour.
And he told me not to wear red, they will attack you.
It's not true, is it?
So far, I'm OK, but I'm staying close to the rangers.
Yes, that's what you have to do!
Do you think there are too many tourists here or it is OK?
No, it's not really.
Actually, more people should come here.
Indonesia does have some of Southeast Asia's most
beautiful and largely undiscovered tourist destinations.
It's something the central government wants to change.
Komodo National Park, just over one hour east by plane
from the tourist hub of Bali, is one of the area is the central
government is now heavily promoting.
Labuan Bajo, the gateway to the park, is a city
undergoing significant change.
This used to be a very sleepy fishing village
when I visited over ten years ago.
Now, it's a hive of building activity.
This is advertised as being a first-class marina,
many big brand names are already buying up space here.
The number of tourists visiting has doubled in the last five years,
the numbers are still relatively low, compared neighbouring Bali,
but there is a real atmosphere here of this place being
on the edge of a tourism boom.
This woman runs a travel company that offers on-board holidays here,
that involve diving, island hopping, as well
as seeing the dragons.
So a lot of changes taking place here, yes?
So what is the feeling amongst people here?
Is there excitement?
Or are people concerned at the pace of change?
Much-needed jobs in what was one of the poorest regions in Indonesia,
but with increased interest and money now coming in,
a tussle for control of the park has now broken out between the central
and local government - the battle for Dragon Land.
Welcome.
This man, the local governor, has a dramatic vision for Komodo Island.
He is demanding the island be closed to all visitors for a year in 2020,
and then become an exclusive place for just a handful
of wealthy people.
So this will involve moving a whole community from the Island of Komodo.
There will surely be resistance to that?
After that, it would cost a lot more than the few dollars you pay
now to enter the park.
The governor is proposing a $1000 entrance fee for the visitors.
He has even floated the idea of genetically modifying the dragons
to make them bigger, and talked about moving
all the dragons onto Komodo Island.
But the vast majority of tourists visit just two main areas that make
up around 4% of the land area of the whole park.
Researchers monitoring the Komodo population since 2002 say
there is no need for alarm.
The population is stable and so, too, their primary prey.
1000 kilometres away in Jakarta, this man from the Ministry
of Environment does not agree with the governor.
The final decision over the future of the park does lie here,
in the Ministry of Environment in the capital.
Under pressure from the governor, they are now doing a review
of the park's management.
In the heat of this debate over the future of the park,
the Indonesian Police broke up the first known Komodo
smuggling ring.
A group of local men are now on trial, accused of smuggling 45
Komodos out of the country, before they were
caught in late March.
We've been given access to meet the baby Komodos
the authorities managed to rescue.
So, we're going inside, this is a transit area for animals
that have been trafficked.
Authorities have caught them on the process of being trafficked
out of Indonesia, so this is where they are being kept.
They hope to release them to the wild, so they are trying
to keep this area as clean and uninfected by humans,
like us, as possible.
This is the first time that you have had Komodos?
So, it is a new trend, perhaps?
Why would anyone, it is quite dangerous, I would imagine,
to have a Komodo as a pet?
See?
This is the dangerous one, I think.
It is wanting to get out of the cage, isn't it?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, it is better for us to have them in the wild, I think.
Indonesia is struggling to combat the trade in its unique wildlife.
Here in this centre, there are various protected species
that were destined to be sold on the local and international
market, as rare pets or for medicine.
Activists say the government here is not doing enough,
and powerful political figures have been linked to the trade.
The Komodo regional governor said he takes over, no one
would dare touch the dragons.
The DNA tests show the smuggled baby Komodos were from the island
of Flores, not from Komodo itself.
An environmentalist argued closing the island of Komodo will do little
to protect the more vulnerable populations outside
of the National Park.
70% of the community on Komodo and the nearby Rinca Island now
survive off the tourist trade.
The idea of less people coming is a disaster to many.
This local guide, Abdul, says the governor's
plans do not make sense.
It is an amazing view!
Yeah, welcome to paradise.
Are you concerned that if it is closed in that year,
there isn't that income coming in, that the community may return
to practices that do destroy the environment?
Yeah.
Some of the bigger tour operators agree controls
need to be put in place, if the tourism boom
is to be sustainable.
And at the moment, do you think it is being strict,
or is it a bit relaxed?
Tissa believes the industry will survive if Komodo Island
is closed for a year, because people will still come
to dive, snorkel and visit the beaches and see the dragons
on other islands.
But for the villagers, there is much more at stake in this battle.
They are confused and worried about their future.
Her father says the government tried to move them before,
when the park was created.
He claims the dragons tried to come with them.
This is a battle for control and a debate over what sustainable
tourism should look like in this unique landscape...
..and who should benefit from it.