Baluran National Park, National park in Situbondo, Indonesia
Baluran National Park is a protected area in Situbondo Regency at the northeastern tip of Java in Indonesia. The reserve covers several ecosystems, including dry savannas inland, mangrove forests along the coast, and coral reefs offshore.
The area received forest reserve status in 1930 through Dutch naturalist K.W. Dammerman. After Indonesian independence, the government designated it a national park in 1980 with expanded protection measures.
Locals call it the Africa of Java because the open grasslands with free-roaming banteng cattle and rusa deer resemble East African savannas. Visitors experience a landscape rare for Java, quite different from the usual tropical rainforests found across the island.
Several marked trails lead through the savanna and along the coast to observation towers. The dry season from April to October offers the best conditions for spotting animals at waterholes.
Mount Baluran rises in the southern part and shapes the dry soil conditions that favor savanna grass over dense rainforest. This volcanic activity created an exception over thousands of years to the otherwise wet vegetation of Java.
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