This island is part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean, and no one is allowed to come within five kilometers of it. Indian police have arrested an American tourist on charges of visiting an isolated island in the Indian Ocean and contacting tribal people living there.
Mikhail Viktorovich Polyakov, a 24-year-old American tourist, is accused of attempting to contact the tribal population living on North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean, filming the visit and leaving a soda can on its shore.
This island is part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean, and no one is allowed to come within five kilometers of it. This island is inhabited by tribes called Sentinelese who have no connection or contact with the other world.
“Mikhail Polyakov whistled for about an hour from his boat in the sea off the coast to attract the tribesmen before landing on North Sentinel Island,” Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal told AFP.
“He then landed on the beach for five minutes and placed coconuts and bananas on the sand for the tribal population there and returned with a sand sample. He also made a video of his visit to the island.”
Survival International, an international organization working to protect isolated tribes, has described the incident as “extremely disturbing” and said that such an act could endanger the lives of both the tribal populations and tourists.
The statement issued by the organization said, “It is good news that the person who entered the restricted area has been arrested, but this news is disturbing in that this tourist managed to reach this restricted island.
It is the legal responsibility of the Indian authorities to protect the tribal population of the Sentinelese from religious preachers, social media influencers, illegal fishers and people who try to contact them.”
US officials say they are aware of the incident and are monitoring the situation. This island is inhabited by a tribe called Sentinelese who have no connection or contact with the other world.
According to Indian police, Polyakov has tried to visit the area twice before, once while on a small inflatable boat and was detained by staff at a nearby hotel. Survival International, an organization working to protect the world’s tribal populations, has emphasized that such contact poses a threat to a community that lacks the immunity to fight diseases from the outside world, such as colds and flu.
Survival International spokesman Jonathan Mazower told that he fears social media trends will increase the risks for uncontacted tribes. It should be noted that this is not the first time that the outside world has tried to contact the Sentinelese.
The Sentinelese have made it clear on several occasions in the past that they have no interest in contacting the outside world. Their attitude towards attempts by the outside world to contact them has been extremely aggressive. In 2018, a 27-year-old American missionary, Jalen Allen Chau, illegally landed on the North Sentinelese island with the intention of converting the tribes to Christianity.
Chau was killed by the Sentinelese and his body was found on the beach. Indian law does not allow access to the island, so the matter could neither be investigated nor Chau’s body retrieved.
Earlier in 2006, two fishermen fell asleep on their boat in the sea off the island’s coast after poaching fish near North Setinel Island. The boat’s anchor broke and the two fishermen were killed by tribesmen when they reached the shore.
Similarly, a photo released by the Indian Coast Guard and Survival International nearly 20 years ago showed a Sentinelese tribe member shooting an arrow at a helicopter passing overhead.
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The Indian Islands: The Andaman & Nicobar Islands, & The Lakshadweep Islands
Where is the North Sentinel located?
This island is still a mystery to the world and the population living here is called Sentinelese. This island is completely surrounded by dense forests. North Sentinel Island is an island in the Indian Ocean, part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Andaman and Nicobar is an Indian territory of 836 small islands and rocks in the northeastern Indian Ocean.
This island is still a mystery to the world and the people living here are called Sentinelese. This island is completely surrounded by dense forests. It is surrounded by white sand beaches. The Sentinelese tribe living here is the most isolated and cut off people from the world.
Some distance away, another island is inhabited by the tribe called Shompen, who, like them, are completely cut off from the rest of the world.
According to the local administration, 31 of these islands are inhabited by humans. North Sentinel Island is isolated from the rest of the islands and is about ten kilometers long. Nothing is known about the Sentinelese’s customs and language. Experts say that they are probably the only people who have lived continuously since the Stone Age thousands of years ago.
Survival International spokesman Jonathan says it is extremely difficult to say anything about the Sentinelese population.
“Their population is estimated to be between 50 and 200 individuals. They live in three separate groups. These individuals are healthy. They hunt animals and fish in the tribal forests and eat them.”
The sea around the island is rich in fish. The Santeliz are said to never leave their island and are completely cut off from the tribes of other islands.
Indian attempts to contact senators in the past
The Indian government had tried in the past to establish contact with the Sentinelese, a population of North Sentinel Island, but was unsuccessful. In 1991, Indian officials arrived near the coast in boats, taking with them coconuts and bananas for the local population.
For the first time, these tribesmen approached them without their weapons and signaled them to bring more gifts. This continued for a few years, but the officials said that even these friendly efforts were not without danger. Because the tribesmen often had their bows drawn on their boats.
Once they attacked an Indian official’s boat with a stone axe. Some officials raised questions about the efforts to contact the tribesmen, after which the remote gift-dropping program was discontinued in 1996.
After the 2004 tsunami, Indian experts visited the island twice to assess the condition of the Sentinelese. They observed them from a distance in the ocean. Their analysis was that the Sentinelese were healthy and did not appear to have any problems.
Threat to the island’s ancient population
The Indian government has planned a mega development project in the Great Nicobar Islands in the face of China’s growing activities in the Indian Ocean. Under this, a huge port, an international airport, a power station and a naval base are planned to be built. With these projects, thousands of people will be settled here.
Jonathan says that the development projects planned in Andaman and Nicobar, especially the project in Great Nicobar, will destroy the existence of these independent tribes. Jonathan Mizour told the BBC that not making contact with the Sentinelese is crucial to their preservation.
He says that during the British era, there were at least eleven tribal groups that were cut off from the outside world, but after they were contacted by the outside world, only four of them now have children, one of which is the Sentinelese group. If contact is established with the outside world, there is a risk that this ancient human population will also disappear forever.