He came bearing Diet Coke and a camera: Why this Andaman island remains off-limits

On the morning of March 29, Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, a 24-year-old American national, briefly stepped ashore North Sentinel Island — a highly restricted zone protected by Indian law and home to one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes. He left behind a coconut and two cans of Diet Coke.Polyakov’s presence was documented by a GoPro camera found in his possession after his arrest on March 31 by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The footage, reviewed by officials, showed him landing on the island’s northeastern edge, placing the items as offerings, collecting sand samples, and using a whistle in an attempt to attract attention — before departing the area after an hour offshore.The Sentinelese, a protected tribal group under the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 2012, and shielded under the Foreigners Act, 1946, are off-limits to all outsiders. The Indian government enforces a strict no-contact policy, citing the tribe’s vulnerability to disease and their wish for complete isolation.Why did he do it?Unlike American missionary John Allen Chau, who was killed by the Sentinelese in November 2018 during an illegal mission to convert the tribe to Christianity, Polyakov does not appear to have had any religious motivation. His purpose, according to authorities, remains unclear.However, interrogation revealed that Polyakov identified as a “thrill-seeker” with a history of venturing into volatile or forbidden zones. According to officials quoted by news media outlets, he previously travelled to Afghanistan in an attempt to meet members of the Taliban.Polyakov told investigators that he was not seeking religious conversion, espionage, or media fame, but rather the experience of crossing a boundary that few have breached. “There is no indication that he was radicalised or that he came on a conversion or religious mission like Chau,” a senior police officer told PTI. medium nocaptionhttp://youtu.be/zvwtWIagkBo?si=D7Kb2RmYd-bQ2yfhPolyakov’s illegal landing was also not a spontaneous act. It was the culmination of a sustained campaign involving three separate visits to the islands over six months.First attempt (October 2024): According to The Indian Express, Polyakov arrived in Port Blair with an inflatable kayak. He intended to scout access routes to North Sentinel Island but was stopped when hotel staff alerted authorities. He was questioned but allowed to leave.Second attempt (January 2025): He returned with more serious intent, acquiring equipment including an outboard motor. He also travelled to Baratang Island, where he illegally videographed the Jarawa tribe, another protected indigenous group. Authorities did not catch him in the act, but footage later recovered confirmed the violation. He left Port Blair on January 27.Final attempt (March 2025): On March 26, he checked into a resort near Port Blair, assembling his inflatable boat and a Suzuki outboard motor at a local workshop. After closely studying sea and weather conditions, he launched his kayak from Kurma Dera Beach at 1am on March 29. By 10am, he had reached the shores of North Sentinel Island.His landing went unnoticed by the Sentinelese — or at least unchallenged. Polyakov spent an hour offshore, blowing a whistle and scanning the tree line. He eventually turned back and returned to Kurma Dera Beach by 7pm. Local fishermen who had seen his approach informed the authorities.On March 31, Polyakov was arrested by the CID. An FIR has now been filed under multiple provisions of Indian law: the Foreigners Act, 1946; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 2012. Officials are also examining whether Polyakov acted alone or with outside assistance, as well as whether he intended to document or monetise his visit. medium120089929Why his visit has sparked concernsPolyakov’s visit — though short and seemingly uneventful — has reignited debate about outsider interest in uncontacted tribes and the limits of adventure in the modern world. In the age of high-tech navigation tools, lightweight rafts, and social media wins, even the world’s most off-limits places are no longer as secure as they once were. Speaking to PTI, a senior officer involved in the investigation commented: “He was obsessed with reaching the Sentinelese. He planned meticulously. It wasn’t a mistake. It was a mission.”Why North Sentinel remains closed to the worldNorth Sentinel Island — a 50sq km forested landmass in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago — remains one of the most restricted zones on Earth — not merely by legal mandate but by necessity. Home to the Sentinelese, a fiercely independent, uncontacted tribe, the island represents a section of humans that has resisted assimilation, exposure, and the destructiveness that modern contact has historically brought to other indigenous communities.Anthropologists believe the Sentinelese are among the last surviving direct descendants of the first human populations to migrate out of Africa into Asia — settling in the Andamans anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago. Over those millennia, they have remained virtually untouched by modern civilisation. Their isolation, however, is not romanticised mystique — it is an essential barrier against existential threat.Unlike other indigenous communities in the region, the Sentinelese have successfully fended off external contact. Their known response to outsiders is swift and aggressive. This hostility is not mindless violence, however.Time and again contact with outsiders has devastated other Andamanese tribes. The Great Andamanese, once numbering around 5,000 before British colonisation, were reduced to just 44 individuals, according to the 2011 Census, ravaged by measles, syphilis, and cultural collapse. The Onge were confined to reserves and destabilised by exposure to alcohol and trade exploitation. The Jarawas — whose territory was breached by the construction of the Andaman Grand Trunk Road — have suffered sexual exploitation, viral diseases, and forced cultural transitions. None of these tribes initiated contact; in every case, it was outsiders who disrupted them. medium120089968 medium120089978“The Andamans would not have been a part of India if not for British colonisation,” noted Madhusree Mukerjee, author of The Land of Naked People in an interview with TOI in 2018. That colonial legacy of displacement and disregard has continued, she says, with the Indian state settling refugees and opening islands to tourism without accounting for the rights and fragility of native communities. The removal of restricted area permits from even vulnerable islands like Little Andaman and North Sentinel, under NITI Aayog’s tourism plans, was met with outrage from activists and anthropologists alike.The Sentinelese, however, have remained apart. Protected by law under the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956, and shielded by geography, they have managed to maintain their seclusion. Their immunity to modern diseases is virtually non-existent. A single virus — flu, measles, or Covid — could trigger an epidemic that would annihilate the community. “Further contact could be absolutely lethal,” warns Mukerjee.More than that, contact challenges their autonomy and worldview. As linguist Anvita Abbi pointed out, the Andamanese do not share even the conceptual frameworks of settler society. “They are already assimilated into their environment, and we are not,” she says. What outsiders consider “integration” is often an imposition — based on ignorance of indigenous knowledge systems, spiritual lives, and social rhythms that do not align with dominant notions of progress.Despite laws and protections, implementation is weak. “Not even one person has been punished for breaking these laws,” said Denis Giles, editor of the Andaman Chronicle. Poachers, tourists, and rogue adventurers continue to violate tribal reserves with impunity.That is why North Sentinel must remain off-limits — not only to protect the Sentinelese, but to confront the modern world’s tendency to override indigenous sovereignty in the name of curiosity, development, or spiritual conquest. Their island is not a frontier to be explored. It is their home. And they have made it abundantly clear: they want to be left alone. medium120089938The man who first met the tribeIn the long and often troubled history of contact attempts with the Sentinelese, few stand apart as anthropologist TN Pandit — the first outsider to set foot on North Sentinel Island in 1967. At the time, he was a 31-year-old officer with the Anthropological Survey of India, leading a joint exploratory mission along with local administrators, policemen, and Naval personnel. Their aim was to understand, not disrupt.Speaking to ET in 2018, Pandit reflected on that first visit: “We had no idea they could be hostile. They never attacked us. They didn’t even show themselves.” The team landed on the island’s beach and cautiously ventured into the forest. Though they never encountered the Sentinelese directly that day, signs of habitation — roasted fish, half-made baskets, weapons, and recently used huts — were evident. The locals had hidden, likely observing them from the undergrowth.Over the following decades, Pandit would return many times — always cautiously, and never with force. His approach evolved into what he described as a “silent dialogue of gestures”. By the 1970s and ’80s, the Sentinelese had begun to greet approaching boats with unmistakable signals: brandishing arrows, turning their backs, and making threatening gestures. Pandit and his team respected these warnings and refrained from setting foot on the island again.They did, however, develop a pattern of dropping gifts from boats — coconuts, metal utensils, iron rods — which the Sentinelese began to accept. In 1991, during a historic encounter, the Sentinelese even took coconuts directly from Pandit’s team by hand, a remarkable sign of limited trust. But this momentary thaw never extended to land access. “They allowed us to drop gifts,” Pandit recalled, “but made objections the moment we tried to enter their island.”Unlike other tribal groups like the Jarawas, who gradually permitted close interactions, the Sentinelese remained firm in their boundary. Attempts to involve members of other tribes — like the Onge — backfired. The Sentinelese reacted with heightened hostility when outsiders brought anyone unfamiliar.Pandit was deeply saddened but not entirely shocked by the 2018 killing of Chau. He believed Chau had ignored clear warnings. “They are not hostile people,” Pandit insisted. “They only say, ‘Leave us alone.’ Anyone who intrudes into their land must not go beyond what they agree with.”For Pandit, who spent decades trying to understand the Sentinelese without violating their autonomy, the lesson was simple: respect the limits they set. “They have made it amply clear that outsiders are not welcome in their habitat,” he said. The tragedy of Chau, in his view, was a result of overstepping those boundaries — ignoring the tribe’s non-verbal language of resistance. medium120090045 medium120089794Encounters with the SentineleseThe Sentinelese are called that because the British dubbed their home the North Sentinel Island. We have no idea of the language they speak, or accurate numbers of how many of them there are1771: The first recorded mention of them is when an East India Company survey ship spotted “a multitude of lights upon the shore”. In 1867, a ship called the Nineveh was wrecked on its shores, and its passengers were attacked by the Sentinelese1967: Indian administrators who tried to make contact have been rebuffed with arrows. A documentary team in 1974, also bearing gifts, was shot at, and the director injured in the thigh. Their gifts were also speared1981: A Panamanian cargo ship called Primrose ran aground on the island reef. The Sentinelese prepared to attack, waving weapons, but Indian Navy helicopters came to rescue the crew. Metal from Primrose was salvaged by the Sentinelese for arrowheads1991: Anthropologist TN Pandit made peaceful contact, making many trips over the years. He distributed coconuts, which they took. They seemed to view his clothes and spectacles with suspicion, though2004: They survived the tsunami because of their knowledge of the winds and seas. They shot an arrow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter that was checking on their safety. The government decided on an ‘eyes on, hands off’ policy with the Sentinelese2006: When their boat drifted to the island, two Indian fishermen were attacked and killed. When a Coast Guard chopper tried to recover their bodies, arrows were fired at them. In the draught of the rotor blades, the sand blew off and they saw the two bodies buried there. One body was retrieved, but not the otherResearch by Rajesh Sharma