This is the scary moment a Komodo dragon trapped a ranger up a tree before the deadly reptile had to be shooed away.

When ranger Ihdar climbed a tamarind tree to fetch some fruit for soup seasoning on March 3, he found his way down blocked by a reptile whose venomous bite can kill a human within hours.

Dramatic footage shows a huge three-metre-long Komodo dragon crawl to the bottom of the trunk before trying to climb the bark after Ihdar.

After a four-minute long standoff, fellow ranger Konstantino Muga had to thrash at the ground using a branch to chase the deadly reptile and two of his friends away.

Konstantino said: “Maybe the dragons were provoked by Ihdar’s movements and thought that he was prey.

“Ihdar was stuck for four minutes with a big dragon at the bottom of the tree. If the dragon had caught him it's likely he'd have been bitten.

“I was very relaxed because although my friend was scared, I knew that a Komodo dragon that size can't climb a tree.

“This video is a lesson for people who visit Komodo Island to be very careful. It was the first time I had seen this happen.

“It that time he was climbing a tree to pick tamarind fruit for fish soup seasoning. I used a forked stick to drive away the Komodo dragons.”