South Button Island National Park is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

located in the

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

off the coast of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, the total area of this protected island is about . Along with the neighbouring islands of North Button and Middle Button, both also national parks, it forms part of the

Rani Jhansi Marine National Park Rani Jhansi Marine National Park is located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It was founded in 1996, and covers 256 km2. It commemorates Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi (1828-58). It is located in the Ritchie ...

off the coast of

South Andaman Island South Andaman Island is the southernmost island of the Great Andaman and is home to the majority of the population of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and ...

. Fossil National Park of Madhya Pradesh is the smallest national park in India.http://www.wiienvis.nic.in/Database/npa_8231.aspx%7C

The park

The South Button Island National Park is part of the

and is located some southwest of Havelock Island, roughly a two-hour trip by motor boat.

Attractions and activities

The island has an oceanic climate moderated by the surrounding sea. The average temperature varies between about . The island receives much rain during the southwesterly

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

season between June and October, and most visitors come between December and April. One of the main attractions around the tiny Island is shallow water coral reefs with high visibility. These tropical coral reefs are at depths as shallow as , and the island is a popular site for snorkelling and

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...

Flora and fauna

Some of the trees and shrubs present on the island are the rattan palm '' Calamus palustris'', the climbing bamboo ''

Dinochloa andamanica ''Dinochloa'' is a genus of tropical clumping high-climbing bamboos in the grass family. These species bear zigzag culms and fleshy fruits. They are found in the hill forests and lowland dipterocarp forest of southern China, Southeast Asia, and ...

'' and '' Parishia insignis'', ''

Calophyllum soulattri ''Calophyllum soulattri'' is a species of flowering plant in the Calophyllaceae family. It is found in the Northern Territory of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietna ...

'', ''

Artocarpus ''Artocarpus'' is a genus of approximately 60 trees and shrubs of Southeast Asian and Pacific origin, belonging to the mulberry family, Moraceae. Most species of ''Artocarpus'' are restricted to Southeast Asia; a few cultivated species are more w ...

'', ''

Canarium ''Canarium'' is a genus of about 100 species of tropical and subtropical trees, in the family Burseraceae. They grow naturally across tropical Africa, south and southeast Asia, Indochina, Malesia, Australia and western Pacific Islands; inclu ...

'', ''

Dipterocarpus grandiflorus ''Dipterocarpus grandiflorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the Dipterocarpaceae family. It is an endangered medium hardwood tree in South-East Asia and India. Its wood is used to produce good quality charcoal, paper pulp, and timber sold u ...

'', '' Dipterocarpus pilosus'', ''

Endospermum chinensis ''Endospermum'' is a genus of plants, under the family Euphorbiaceae and the monotypic subtribe Endosperminae first described as a genus in 1861 They are dioecious, rarely monoecious trees. It is native to E + S + SE Asia, Papuasia, Queensland, a ...

'', ''

Hopea odorata ''Hopea odorata'', or ta-khian ( th, ตะเคียน), is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is found in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is a large tree reaching up to 45 m ...

'', '' Salmalia insignis'', ''

Sideroxylon ''Sideroxylon'' is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1753. They are collectively known as bully trees. The generic name is derived from the Greek words σιδηρος (''sideros''), meaning "iron", and ...

'', '' Aprosa villosula'', ''

Baccaurea sapida ''Baccaurea'Flora Cochinchinensis'' 2: 661. 1790. is a genus of flowering plant belonging to the family Phyllanthaceae. The genus comprises over 100 species, distributed from Malesia to the West Pacific. It is dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. ...

'', ''

Caryota mitis ''Caryota mitis'', known as the clustering fishtail palm or fishtail palm, is a species of palm native to Tropical Asia from India to Java to southern China, now sparingly naturalized in southern Florida and in parts of Africa and Latin America. ...

'' and ''

Dinochloa palustris ''Dinochloa'' is a genus of tropical clumping high-climbing bamboos in the Poaceae, grass family. These species bear zigzag culm (botany), culms and fleshy fruits. They are found in the hill forests and lowland dipterocarp forest of southern Chi ...

''. The island is too small to support large terrestrial mammals but the sea is teeming with life. Among the animals that make their home here are

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest m ...

s, water lizards,

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

s and

blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

s. The fish to be seen off-shore include snappers, sweetlips,

lion fish ''Pterois'' is a genus of venomous fish, venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. Also called firefish, turkeyfish, tastyfish, or butterfly-cod, it is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with re ...

, angel fish,

butterflyfish The butterflyfish are a group of conspicuous tropical marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group. The approximately 129 species in 12 genera are found mostly on the reefs of the Atlant ...

, devil rays,

manta ray Manta rays are large rays belonging to the genus ''Mobula'' (formerly its own genus ''Manta''). The larger species, '' M. birostris'', reaches in width, while the smaller, '' M. alfredi'', reaches . Both have triangular Pectoral fin#AnchPect ...

s and

barracuda A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was ...

, as well as

nudibranch Nudibranchs () are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have been given colourful nicknames to matc ...

octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttle ...

es and

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

s. Sea turtles breed here, as do the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the

edible-nest swiftlet The edible-nest swiftlet (''Aerodramus fuciphagus''), also known as the white-nest swiftlet, is a small bird of the swift family which is found in Southeast Asia. Its opaque and whitish bird nest is made exclusively of solidified saliva and is t ...

(''Aerodramus fuciphagus'') and the distinctive

white-bellied sea eagle The white-bellied sea eagle (''Haliaeetus leucogaster''), also known as the white-breasted sea eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related t ...

(''Haliaeetus leucogaster'').

References

{{Coord, 12, 13, 26, N, 93, 01, 13, E, source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title National parks in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Ritchie's Archipelago 1977 establishments in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Protected areas established in 1977

The park

Attractions and activities

Flora and fauna

See also

References