Sri Vijaya Puram: US national Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov (24) created a sensation by travelling to the North Sentinel Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago on March 29 this year. He has been arrested and is now undergoing questioning by several agencies on his real motive behind travelling to that restricted island.
But, why is travel to the North Sentinel Island restricted?
Inhabitants do not like visitors:
The North Sentinel Island, located about 25 nautical miles to the west of Sri Vijaya Puram (earlier Port Blair), is home to the extremely reclusive Sentinelese tribe.
The Sentinelese do not like visitors and are known to have killed at least three persons who ventured onto the island.
In 2006, two fishermen from Sri Vijaya Puram were poaching in the waters around North Sentinel. Rough seas seem to have pushed their boat towards the shore, where the Sentinelese caught hold of them.
After they were reported missing, an Indian Coast Guard helicopter located their boat on a beach in North Sentinel. The pilot attempted to land but a group of Sentinelese on the beach started shooting arrows at the aircraft. The arrows reached a height of nearly 100 feet.
Finally, the pilot flew at slow speed along the beach, followed by the Sentinelese on foot. After flying for a while, the pilot turned and landed near the boat. The body of one of the fishermen – strangulated by a rope from the boat itself – was recovered from a makeshift grave nearby. Before the second body could be due to, the Sentinelese returned, forcing the helicopter to lift off.
Another attempt was made to recover the second body, but the islanders were ready. While one party chased the helicopter, another remained on the spot. Finally, efforts to take back the body to Sri Vijaya Puram were abandoned.
The third person to die in the hands of the Sentinelese was John Allen Chau, an US missionary, who landed at North Sentinel in 2018 to try and convert the Sentinelese.
Hence, Polyakov should consider himself lucky to have returned from the island alive. But then, he did not come across any inhabitants during his short stay on the beach, where he left coconuts and diet coke as gifts.
