Middle Button Island National Park is an Indian

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 park was created in 1979 and is situated about northeast of

Port Blair Port Blair () is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South An ...

, capital of the island group. The total area that the national park covers is about . Along with the neighbouring islands of North Button and South 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 an ...

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. Access is available by boat from Port Blair and visitors should contact the park office for information on scuba diving facilities, entry permits, timing of visits and fees. There is no accommodation in the park but visitors may organise packages to sleep on board vessels, or may camp with prior permission from the park authorities.

Flora and fauna

The island is clad in moist deciduous forest and surrounded by sandy beaches and shallow seas with clear water. Some of the trees and shrubs present include the rattan palm '' Calamus palustris'', the climbing bamboo '' Dinochloa andamanica'' and '' Parishia insignis'', '' Calophyllum soulattri'', ''

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'', ''

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, ...

'', ''

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 The Pacific Ocean is the ...

'', ''

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 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, ...

''. Among the animals found on land are

spotted deer The chital or cheetal (''Axis axis''; ), also known as the spotted deer, chital deer, and axis deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. It was first described and given a binomial name by German naturalist Johann Christian Po ...

, water lizards and

monitor lizard Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus ''Varanus,'' the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and one species is also found in the Americas as an invasive species. About 80 species are recogn ...

s. Marine fauna found in the park include

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

s, fishes and many species of

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

abound.

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 have been reported off the coast.

References

{{Authority control National parks in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Ritchie's Archipelago 1979 establishments in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Protected areas established in 1979