He reached by dinghy the island of North Sentinel, one of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, inhabited by the most isolated indigenous tribe in the world , one of the few to remain completely separated from modern civilization and to refuse all contact with the outside world.
The protagonist of the feat, to be fed to his followers, is Mykhailo Polyakov, a 24-year-old YouTuber , American of Ukrainian origins. He had already tried to get there twice, without success. This time he succeeded, he tried to attract the attention of the inhabitants, nothing doing, so he went ashore and left a can of Coca Cola and a coconut on the beach .
The young man was arrested by Indian police , which is the lesser evil considering others have even been killed. The island has been designated a protected tribal reserve since 1956 and is illegal to visit , also because the tribe most likely has no form of immunity to even the most trivial diseases that a visitor could spread.
Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, a leading NGO for the rights of indigenous peoples, calls the gesture "reckless and idiotic" and emphasizes: " He risked his life but above all he put that of the tribe at risk. The Sentinelese have no immune defenses against the diseases of the modern world, a common cold could be enough to exterminate them ."
Pearce also highlighted the alarming phenomenon of influencers trying to contact isolated tribes: "Cases are increasing and represent a serious threat."
Even the Indian government has for decades abandoned any attempt at direct contact with the Sentinelese, who are very hostile towards the outside world. In 2006 they killed two Indian fishermen who had reached the island by mistake, in 2018 they killed a US missionary who wanted to convert them to Christianity. And after the 2004 tsunami they shot some arrows at a rescue helicopter .
(Online Union)
