NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian police have arrested a 24-year-old American Youtuber who visited an off-limits island within the Indian ocean and left an providing of a Weight loss plan Coke can and a coconut in an try and make contact with an remoted tribe recognized for attacking intruders.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, from Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested on March 31, two days after he set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel Island — a part of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands — in a bid to satisfy individuals from the reclusive Sentinelese tribe, police stated.
An area courtroom final week despatched Polyakov to a 14-day judicial custody and he’s set to look once more within the courtroom on April 17. The fees carry a attainable sentence of as much as 5 years in jail and a effective. Indian authorities stated they’d knowledgeable the U.S. Embassy in regards to the case.
Guests are banned from touring inside 3 miles (5 kilometres) of the island, whose inhabitants has been remoted from the remainder of the world for 1000’s of years. The inhabitants use spears and bows and arrows to hunt the animals that roam the small, closely forested island. Deeply suspicious of outsiders, they assault anybody who lands onto their seashores.
In 2018, an American missionary who landed illegally on the seaside was killed by North Sentinel islanders who apparently shot him with arrows after which buried his physique on the seaside. In 2006, the Sentinelese had killed two fishermen who had by chance landed on the shore.
Indian officers have restricted contacts to uncommon “gift-giving” encounters, with small groups of officers and scientists leaving coconuts and bananas for the islanders. Indian ships additionally monitor the waters across the island, attempting to make sure outsiders don’t go close to the Sentinelese, who’ve repeatedly made clear they need to be left alone.
Police stated Polyakov was guided by GPS navigation throughout his journey and surveyed the island with binoculars earlier than touchdown. He stayed on the seaside for about an hour, blowing a whistle to draw the eye however obtained no response from the islanders.
He later left a can of Weight loss plan Coke and a coconut as an providing, made a video on his digital camera, and picked up some sand samples earlier than returning to his boat.
On his return he was noticed by native fishermen, who knowledgeable the authorities and Polyakov was arrested in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an archipelago almost 750 miles (1,207 kilometres) east of India’s mainland. A case was registered towards him for violation of Indian legal guidelines that prohibit any outsider to work together with the islanders.
Police stated Polyakov had carried out detailed analysis on sea situations, tides and accessibility to the island earlier than beginning his journey.
“He planned meticulously over several days to visit the island and make a contact with the Sentinel tribe,” Senior Police Officer Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal stated.
In a press release, police stated 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.”
An preliminary investigation revealed Polyakov had made two earlier makes an attempt, in October final yr and January, to go to the islands, together with in an inflatable kayak.
Police stated Polyakov was drawn to the island resulting from his ardour for journey and excessive challenges, and was fascinated by the mystique of the Sentinelese individuals.
Survival Worldwide, a bunch that protects the rights of Indigenous peoples, stated Polyakov’s tried contact with the tribes of North Sentinel was “reckless and idiotic.”
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“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 stated in a press release.
