Bantimurung-Bulusarung National Park : the Kingdom of Butterfly

Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world's largest island country and the 14th-largest country by area, at 1,904,569 square kilometers (735,358 square miles). With about 270 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.

One of Destinations that Asian Destinations Readers need to go is Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park is a national park in South Sulawesi in Indonesia. The park is in Maros Regency, 50 kilometers to the north of Makassar (one hour drive) or just 20 kilometers from Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport (30 minutes drive). Most of the Karst formations are tall and steep at almost a 90 degree angle line along both sides of the road from Maros city to Bantimurung continuing on up to the Pangkajene and Islands Regency.

Located in the transition area of ​​Asia and Australia zone, the national park has many unique animals collection, such as Sulawesi moor macaque (Macaca maura), the red-knobbed hornbill (Aceros cassidix, Penelopides exarhatus), cuscus (Strigocuscus celebensis), Sulawesi palm civet (Macrogalidia musschenbroekii), bat, and pot-bellied boar (Sus scrofa vittatus). Recently, in March 2008, staffs of Bantimurung – Bulusaraung National Park had documented the existence of Tarsius fuscus and they also found its nest inside the area. Among crustacean biodiversity in the karst area, there is one unique species called "spider crab" (Cancrocaeca xenomorpha) which is only found in Maros Karst cave.


In addition to the insectarium, butterfly breeding centers, managed by both the reserve administrator and residents serve complete the metamorphosis process of the butterflies. There are many butterflies around the waterfall such as Troides helena Linne, Troides hypolitus Cramer, Troides haliphron Boisduval, Papilio Peranthus adamantius and Cethosia myrana.


Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park (Babul National Park) has been nicknamed The Kingdom of Butterfly and The Spectacular Tower Karst (Spectacular Karst Tower). That's because until the end of 2016 240 species of Papilionoidea (kitten-tailed butterflies) have been identified in the Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park area.


Meanwhile, it should also be noted that half of the conservation area in the Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park is a karst ecosystem. By definition karst is an area consisting of porous limestone so that water on the ground surface always seeps and flows into the ground. Karst can also be interpreted as a form of the earth's surface which is generally characterized by closed depressions, surface drainage, and caves. This area is formed mainly by the dissolution of rock, mostly limestone.

Inside the Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park, there is a karst area (±22,800 ha) which has a karst tower type (tower karst) which is claimed to be the largest and second most beautiful in the world after the karst area in South China covering an area of ​​±46,200 ha. From a 2016 report, the Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park Office noted that 257 caves had been found, consisting of 216 natural caves and 41 prehistoric caves. In fact, the deepest and longest cave in Indonesia is in this area which was recorded in the Indonesian-World Record Museum (MURI) in 2015, namely Leang Pute as deep as 263 meters below ground level, and Salukan Kallang cave with a length of 12,263 meters. Riding on the water on blown up inner tubes is a popular activity for children at the site.

Since the 1970s the Bantimurung area has been known as a commercial source of butterflies. Collections of butterflies are supplied both to local Indonesian markets as well as international markets as souvenirs in the form of individual specimens, butterfly frames, key chains, and other accessories. In 2010 about 600,000 tourists (mainly domestic visitors) visited the site. Over use and over exploitation of the local resource is now seen as a problem. In response, the management of the national park has moved to change the purpose of the butterfly conservatory from extraction and exploitation into preservation of the natural ecosystem as a tourist attraction.

 

Sources :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantimurung%E2%80%93Bulusaraung_National_Park

https://indonesiabaik.id/infografis/taman-nasional-bantimurung-bulusaraung-the-kingdom-of-butterfly

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