An American tourist has been arrested after sailing to a remote island and leaving behind a can of Coke and a coconut for the world’s most dangerous and isolated people.
North Sentinel Island is home to the Sentinelese, a pre-Neolithic tribe that has rebuffed all contact with the outside world, shooting arrows at passing helicopters and killing those landing ashore.
Yet Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to the island on Saturday using a makeshift craft to cross a 25-mile strait, Indian police said.
They arrested the American, who has a Ukrainian father, on his return as the island has been off limits since 1996, with Indian navy vessels patrolling a five-mile exclusion zone to prevent any unauthorised landings.
According to police, Mr Polyakov arrived in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an Indian territory in the Bay of Bengal, on March 26.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov tried to make contact with the reclusive islanders
He then began his expedition from Kurma Dera beach early on March 29 with an inflatable boat that had had a motor fitted at a local workshop, police said.
Navigating the waters using GPS, he reached the forbidden territory’s northeastern shore at about 10am.
Blew whistle to attract attention
From his boat, he scanned the area with binoculars but saw no sign of the Sentinelese. For about an hour, he blew a whistle to try to attract attention but received no response.
He then briefly stepped onto the island, left a can of Coca-Cola and a coconut as offerings, collected sand samples and recorded a video before departing.
Mr Polyakov returned to Kurma Dera Beach at 7pm, where local fishermen spotted him and alerted the police.
Authorities said his journey was meticulously planned, with the American having studied sea conditions, tides and access points.
They recovered a GoPro camera containing footage of his activities and seized his inflatable boat. He remains in custody for further questioning.
Police said the 24-year-old had previously attempted illegal interactions with the archipelago’s other indigenous tribes.
‘Where else he visited’
They said he travelled to Baratang island in January and illegally filmed members of the Jarawa tribe.
“We are getting more details about him and his intention to visit the reserved tribal area. We are also trying to find where else he had visited during his stay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We are questioning the hotel staff where he was staying in Port Blair,” a police spokesman said.
Police have filed a case against him for breach of protection of aboriginal tribes and informed the ministry of external affairs and the US embassy.
Caroline Pearce, the director of indigenous rights group Survival International, said Polyakov’s attempt to make contact with Sentinelese people was “deeply disturbing”.
She said: “It beggars belief that someone could be that reckless and idiotic. This person’s actions not only endangered his own life, they put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk.
“It’s very well known by now that uncontacted peoples have no immunity to common outside diseases like flu or measles, which could completely wipe them out.”
The Sentinelese have a long history of rejecting outside contact. Indian authorities strictly prohibit visits to the island to protect the tribe from external threats.
In 2018, 26-year-old American missionary John Chau was killed after attempting to make contact and convert the islanders to Christianity.
