Indian authorities have arrested an American tourist who allegedly made an illegal voyage to North Sentinel Island, home to one of the world’s most isolated Indigenous tribes.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, reached the remote island on March 29 but did not appear to make contact with the reclusive Sentinelese tribe, according to Jitendra Kumar Meena, head of the Andaman and Nicobar Police’s Criminal Investigations Department.
“He is lucky he did not make contact; otherwise he would have met the same fate,” Meena told CNN, referring to the 2018 incident when American missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribespeople after attempting to convert them to Christianity.
Polyakov was spotted by a local fisherman returning from the island and arrested two days later. Police seized an inflatable boat, motor, phone, GoPro, and a bottle of sand allegedly collected from the island. He has not yet been formally charged.
The US State Department confirmed awareness of “the detention of a US citizen in India” but provided no further details.
North Sentinel Island, approximately 750 miles from mainland India and roughly the size of Manhattan, is strictly off-limits to visitors under Indian law. The restrictions aim to preserve the Sentinelese way of life and protect the tribe from modern diseases to which they have no immunity.
Investigators revealed that Polyakov had planned his trip extensively, making two previous visits to the Andaman archipelago before his illegal journey to North Sentinel. He reportedly set off from a beach about 25 miles away in South Andaman.
“As per what he has revealed in the investigation, he said he is keen on adventures. He claimed he left some soft drink bottles there for the tribe, but we haven’t found anything so far,” Meena said.
According to Survival International, the Sentinelese are the most isolated Indigenous people in the world. They live on their small forested island called North Sentinel, which is approximately the size of Manhattan and which is part of an island chain that is also home to another uncontacted people, the Shompen. They have consistently rejected outside contact since first documented encounters with the British in the late 1800s, attacking anyone who comes near.
Most information about them comes from observations made from boats positioned beyond arrow range and from rare past encounters.
Director of Survival International, Caroline Pearce, condemned Polyakov’s actions as “reckless and idiotic,” noting that such intrusions endanger both the visitor and the entire tribe. “It’s very well known that uncontacted peoples have no immunity to common outside diseases like flu or measles, which could completely wipe them out,” she stated.
Following the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami, a tribal member was photographed firing arrows at a helicopter sent to check on their welfare. In 2006, two poachers who drifted ashore while illegally fishing nearby waters were killed by the tribe.
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