An American tourist set off alone last week on an inflatable boat for the remote island of North Sentinel in the Indian Ocean. He had packed a Diet Coke and a coconut as an offering for the highly isolated tribe that lives there, and had brought along a GoPro camera in hopes of filming the encounter, the Indian police said.
Guided by his GPS navigation, the man, Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, reached the northeastern shore of the island at 10 a.m. on March 29, according to the police. He scanned the land with binoculars, but saw no one. So he climbed ashore, left the Diet Coke and the coconut there, took sand samples, and recorded a video, the police said.
Mr. Polyakov was arrested on March 31 when he returned to Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an archipelago more than 800 miles east of India’s mainland, the authorities said.
Few outsiders have been to the island of North Sentinel, which is a territory of India and is illegal to visit. Indian government regulations prohibit any outsider interaction with its isolated tribe, whose members hunt with bow and arrow and have killed intruders for stepping onto their shore.
In 2018, an American missionary, John Allen Chau, set off for the island with a Bible. He was shot with bows and arrows by tribesmen when he got onshore, the Indian authorities later said. Fishermen who helped take Mr. Chau to North Sentinel told the police that they had seen tribesmen dragging his body on the beach.
In 2006, the Sentinelese killed two fishermen who had accidentally drifted on shore.
But Mr. Polyakov was not deterred. He had planned his journey “meticulously,” the police said, studying sea conditions, tides, and accessibility from Khurmadera Beach, located on Andaman island.
Even after he pushed back from North Sentinel island, Mr. Polyakov tried to attract the attention of the Sentinelese people, by blowing a whistle from his boat, the police said.
He was accused of attempting to “interact with the Sentinelese tribe,” the police in Andaman said in a statement. Mr. Polyakov is being held on charges that include violating a law protecting aboriginal tribes and is scheduled to appear in court on April 17. The charges carry a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine.
“His actions posed a serious threat to the safety and well-being of the Sentinelese people, whose contact with outsiders is strictly prohibited by law to protect their Indigenous way of life,” the statement said.
The police said that during their questioning of Mr. Polyakov, he disclosed that he was drawn to the island out of a “passion for adventure and his desire to undertake extreme challenges.” Officials added that his GoPro footage suggested entry into the island, and that he used GPS navigation throughout his voyage.
“He was particularly fascinated by the mystique of the Sentinelese people,” the police said, adding that the authorities had extracted footage from his GoPro camera.
The police statement said that the Ministry of External Affairs and the United States Embassy had been informed of the arrest.
A State Department spokesperson said that the department was “aware of reports of the detention of a U.S. citizen in India” but had no further comment because of privacy issues.
Mr. Polyakov’s family members could not be reached.
Mr. Polyakov has recorded his travel exploits on his YouTube channel, which includes videos of him in what he described as “Taliban-controlled Afghanistan,” some of which involve posing with and firing weapons.
The police said he had made previous trips to the remote region. In October, hotel staff stopped his attempt to go to North Sentinel Island using an inflatable kayak, the police said. In January, he reached Baratang Island, in the archipelago, and “illegally videographed” another tribe, the Jarawa, the police said.
Survival International, a group that protects the rights of Indigenous tribal peoples around the world, said that Mr. Polyakov’s attempted contact with the tribal people of North Sentinel was “reckless and idiotic.”
“This person’s actions not only endangered his own life, they put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk,” the group’s director, Caroline Pearce, said in a statement. “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.”
She said it was disturbing that he was able to reach the island at all.
“The Indian authorities have a legal responsibility to ensure that the Sentinelese are safe from missionaries, social media influencers, people fishing illegally in their waters and anyone else who may try to make contact with them,” she said.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
