By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-04-02 17:48:00 | Updated at 2025-04-03 16:21:19
22 hours ago
An American tourist made an illicit visit to a dangerous, isolated tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands — only to be totally ignored by the people, who have had no contact with the outside world in 30 years, authorities in the Indian territory said.
That’s probably a good thing for 24-year-old Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov.
The last outsider who visited the islands, American missionary John Allen Chau, was killed by the tribe in 2018 and his body remains buried on the island to this day.
Polyakov, a Ukrainian-American national was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly took a single-seat boat to the restricted North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean — the same spot where the isolated Sentinelese tribe shot Chau with an arrow after he tried to convert them to Christianity, the Press Trust of India reports.
HS Dhaliwal, the director general of police on the islands, said Polyakov was spotted taking off from a beach in South Andaman on March 29 just after midnight carrying just a coconut and can of soda, which he claimed were “offerings for the Sentinelese.”
North Sentinel Island is about 25 miles west of the popular resort areas of the Indian Ocean island chain.
“We are getting more details about him and his intention to visit the reserved tribal area,” he told the local outlet. “We are also trying to find out where else he has visited during his stay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.”
Polyakov, who arrived in in the main city of Port Blair on March 26, reached the north shore of the island — where all outsiders are banned by Indian law — by 10 a.m., but he appeared to be ignored by the Sentinelese people, police noted after confiscating his GoPro camera.
He used binoculars to try and spot Sentinelese tribal members from his boat to no avail, and allegedly used a whistle to try and attract attention.
After failing to come into contact with the tribe, Polyakov landed on the island for about five minutes, leaving his offerings on the shore, collecting sand samples, and recording a video, police said.
Polyakov arrived back at the resort area by 7 p.m., where he was spotted by local fishermen.
The entire trip was meticulously planned, with Polyakov allegedly conducting research on the sea conditions, tides and accessibility from the southern beach to reach the island, police said.
Officials maintain that this was not Polyakov’s first journey to reach the isolated tribes who live across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Back in January, the 24-year-old illegally filmed the remote Jarawa tribe while visiting the Baratang Islands, police said.
Polyakov also attempted to conduct reconnaissance of the North Sentinel Island using an inflatable kayak last October, but staff at the hotel where he was staying stopped him, officials said.
Authorities filed a formal complaint against Polyakov under the Foreigners Act of 1946 for entering a protected tribal reserve or restricted area without permission.
The tribal lands are protected under the Andaman & Nicobar Islands Regulation of 1956, which prohibits unauthorized entry to the locations.
The Sentinelese are among five remote tribes who live on the islands and who are known to be hostile to outsiders.
