The earliest stories (among Westerners) of a dragon-like animal existing in the region circulated widely and attracted considerable attention. But no Westerner visited the island to check the story until official interest was sparked in the early 1910s by stories from Dutch sailors based in Flores in East Nusa Tenggara about a mysterious creature. The creature was allegedly a dragon that inhabited a small island in the Lesser Sunda Islands (the main island of which is Flores).
Komodo (Indonesian: Pulau Komodo, pronounced [koˈmodo]) is one of the 17,508 islands that comprise the Republic of Indonesia. It is particularly notable as the habitat of the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on Earth, which is named after the island. Komodo Island has a surface area of 291 square kilometers, and had a human population of about 1,800 in 2020.
In 1991, Komodo Island was include on the Komodo National Park, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Man and Biosphere Reserve. It is considered one of the world's 25 biodiversity hotspots. It has also been selected as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.[1] The waters surrounding Komodo Island contain rich marine biodiversity. The Komodo Islands are also a part of the Coral Triangle, which contains some of the richest marine biodiversity on Earth.
It is also a WWF Global 200 Marine Eco-region, a WWF/IUCN Centre of Plant Diversity, one of the world’s Endemic Bird Areas,s and an ASEAN Heritage Park.