A 24-year-old American YouTuber was arrested in India after he visited an off-limits island in the Indian Ocean and left a Diet Coke can and a coconut as an offering to an isolated tribe known for attacking intruders, all in an attempt to make contact with them.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, from Scottsdale, Arizona, was held on March 31, two days after he visited the restricted territory of North Sentinel Island, which is part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He had visited the isolated island to meet people from the reclusive Sentinelese tribe, news agency Associated Press reported.
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US Man Spent An Hour At The Island, Left Diet Coke And Coconut
Last week, Polyakov was sent to a 14-day judicial custody by a local court and is set to appear again in the court April 17. The charges carry a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine. Indian authorities have informed the US Embassy about the case.
Visitors are banned from travelling within three miles (5 kilometers) of the North Sentinel island, which has remained isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The inhabitants of the island use spears, bows, and arrows to hunt the animals that roam the small, but heavily forested region. They tend to attack anyone who lands onto their beaches as they are deeply suspicious of outsiders.
An American missionary who landed illegally on the beach was killed by North Sentinel islanders back in 2018. He was shot with arrows and his body was buried on the beach. In another similar incident, the Sentinelese, in 2006, had killed two fishermen who had accidentally landed on the shore.
Officials have limited contact with the islanders to rare “gift-giving” encounters, with small teams of scientists officials leaving bananas and coconuts for them. Indian ships also monitor the waters around the island to ensure that outsiders do not go near the island, whose inhabitants have repeatedly requested to be left alone.
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YouTuber Made 2 Other Attempts To Visit The Remote Island
According to police, Polyakov was guided by GPS navigation and surveyed the island with binoculars before landing. He was on the beach for nearly one hour and blowed a whistle to attract the islanders’ attention, the report said.
After getting no response from the islanders, he left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as an offering, recorded a video on his camera, and collected some samples of sand before returning to his boat.
When he returned, local fishermen spotted him and informed the authorities. This led to Polyakov’s arrest in Port Blair. A case was then registered against him for violation of Indian laws that prohibit any outsider to interact with the islanders.
Police also said Polyakov had undertaken a detailed research on sea conditions, tides, and accessibility before starting his journey to the island. “He planned meticulously over several days to visit the island and make a contact with the Sentinel tribe,” Senior Police Officer Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal said, AP reported.
In a statement, police said Polyakov’s “actions posed a serious threat to the safety and well-being of the Sentinelese people, whose contact with outsiders is strictly prohibited by the law to protect their indigenous way of life.”
Initial investigation revealed that the man had tried to visit the island twice previously in October last year and January, including in an inflatable kayak.
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