Indian police mentioned on Thursday that they had arrested a U.S. vacationer who sneaked onto a extremely restricted island carrying a coconut and a can of Weight loss program Coke to a tribe untouched by the trendy world. The incident occurred seven years after one other American was killed by the tribe on the identical island.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel — a part of India’s Andaman Islands — in a bid to satisfy the Sentinelese individuals, who’re believed to quantity solely round 150.
All outsiders, Indians and foreigners alike, are banned from touring inside three miles of the island to guard the Indigenous individuals from exterior ailments and to protect their lifestyle.
“The American citizen was introduced earlier than the native court docket after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for additional interrogation,” Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal informed AFP.
Satellite tv for pc pictures present a coral reef-fringed island — stretching to some six miles at its widest level — with thick forest and white sand seashores.
The Sentinelese final made worldwide headlines in 2018 after they killed John Allen Chau, 27, an American missionary who landed illegally on their seashore.
Chau’s physique was not recovered and there have been no investigations over his demise due to the Indian regulation prohibiting anybody from going to the island. Officers on the time mentioned he was apparently shot and killed by arrows.
On this Nov. 14, 2005 file picture, clouds cling over the North Sentinel Island, in India’s southeastern Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Gautam Singh / AP
India sees the broader Andaman and Nicobar Islands as strategically sited on key international delivery lanes. They’re nearer to Myanmar than mainland India.
New Delhi plans to speculate a minimum of $9 billion to increase naval and air bases, troop lodging, the port and the primary metropolis within the area.
“Reckless and idiotic”
Dhaliwal mentioned Polyakov saved blowing a whistle off the shore of North Sentinel Island for about an hour to draw the tribe’s consideration earlier than he went ashore.
“He landed briefly for about 5 minutes, left the choices on the shore, collected sand samples, and recorded a video earlier than returning to his boat,” Dhaliwal mentioned. “A evaluate of his GoPro digital camera footage confirmed his entry and touchdown into the restricted North Sentinel Island.”
Police mentioned Polyakov was arrested late on Monday, about two days after he went ashore, and had visited the area twice in latest months.
He first used an inflatable kayak in October 2024 however was stopped by resort employees, police mentioned on Thursday. Polyakov made one other unsuccessful try throughout a go to in January 2025.
This time Polyakov used one other inflatable boat with a motor to journey the roughly 22 miles of open sea from the primary archipelago.
The charity Survival Worldwide issued an announcement, calling Polyakov’s actions “deeply disturbing/”
“It beggars perception that somebody could possibly be that reckless and idiotic,” the group’s director, Carolina Pearce, mentioned. “This particular person’s actions not solely endangered his personal life, they put the lives of your entire Sentinelese tribe in danger. It is very well-known by now that uncontacted peoples don’t have any immunity to frequent exterior ailments like flu or measles, which might utterly wipe them out.”
The Sentinelese, whose language and customs stay a thriller to outsiders, shun all contact and have a file of hostility to anybody who tries to get shut.
{A photograph} issued by the Indian Coast Guard and Survival Worldwide twenty years in the past confirmed a Sentinelese man aiming a bow and arrow at a passing helicopter.
Indian authorities have prosecuted any locals who’ve aided makes an attempt to enter the island and try to establish anybody who might have helped Polyakov.
The Andamans are additionally house to the 400-strong Jarawa tribe, who activists say are additionally threatened by contact from outsiders. Vacationers have beforehand bribed native officers in a bid to spend time with the Jarawa.