On November 16, an American tourist was killed by members of a hunter-gatherer community living in complete isolation from the modern world, when he had just arrived illegally on the forbidden island of North Sentinel. Its inhabitants attack anyone who tries to approach their territory.
People from Guardwho live cut off from the outside world in the middle of the Andaman Sea, suddenly came into the spotlight. On November 16, a 27-year-old American tourist, John Allen Chau, was killed by an arrow, when he wanted to make contact with the indigenous hunter-gatherer community, who live on the small island. Guardian of the Northin the Andaman Islands archipelago.
People who are completely isolated
This community is still largely unknown to scientists. The most isolated people on earth, the Sentinelese have actually cultivated their existence in total self-sufficiency for centuries, rejecting any contact with modern civilization, which they deeply despise.
Exact number of members Guard is also unknown, and some experts estimate the number to be as high as 150. However, according to the 2011 Indian population census, there were only 15. Due to the lack of direct contact, exact statistics are still very difficult to determine.
According to the NGO Survival International, which works to defend the indigenous population, the Sentinelese, who speak their own language, came from Africa and settled on the island about 60,000 years ago. But all attempts to get closer to modern history have failed.
Several attempts at contact
The first occurred in the late 19th century, when the British made a trip to the island to capture the inhabitants and take them to a neighboring island, in order to establish contact. The expedition ended with the death of two of the captives, and the British abandoned the idea of taking an interest in these people.
Several more missions were carried out in the second half of the 20th century by the Indian government, anthropologists, and reporters. But each time boats approached their shores, the Sentinelese hid in the jungle or attacked their visitors with arrows. After a series of failures, India officially gave up on reaching the people in the 1990s.
In 2004, the story of the Sentinelese spread around the world through a symbolic photograph taken shortly after the Indian Ocean tsunami. The Indian Coast Guard then flew over the island to see if the indigenous population had survived the disaster. Taken from the sky, the photo shows a man trying to shoot down their helicopter with a bow and arrow.
Access to the island is strictly prohibited
Access to North Sentinel is also restricted by the Indian state, which forbids anyone from approaching within five kilometers of the island's coast. According to CNNthis action by New Delhi aims to preserve the Sentinelese and their ancestral way of life, but also to prevent contamination of these individuals, who due to their isolation have no immunity to disease. The infection of one of its members indeed risks wiping out the entire tribe. Indian authorities occasionally check the health of the Sentinelese by observing the coast from a distance, from boats.
Ignoring the warnings, John Allen Chau was able to get there by paying fishermen to ferry him to the small island. But as soon as he set foot on dry land, the young man was surrounded and killed by his tribe members, shot with arrows. The same fate had already befallen two unfortunate Indian fishermen in 2006: the Sentinelese killed them when their boat drifted as they slept on the shores of North Sentinel.
