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American YouTuber arrested authorities in India After allegedly trying to make contact with an isolated sentinelian tribe on Northern Sentinel Island, part of the territory of the island of Andaman and Nicobar.
Mykhailo Viktovovych Polyakov (24) set off with an illegal journey to a limited island of the Indian Ocean 29, March, Indian police said.
Police said Polyakov recorded his visit and left a can of diet and coconut on the coast as an offer to a tribe.
For thousands of years, people on the island of North Sentinel have been isolated from the rest of the world. The outsiders of tribes should not travel within three miles from the island to protect the natives from the disease and help preserve their lifestyle.
“The US citizen was presented before a local court after his arrest and is now at a three -day custody for further interrogation,” Police Head of Andaman and Nicobar Islands HGS Dhaliwal said, according to CBS.
Dhaliwal said Polyak’s blowing a whistle for about an hour to get the tribal attention before he went to the shore.
“He landed briefly for about five minutes, left offers on the shore, collected sand samples and recorded the video before returning to his ship,” Dhaliwal said. “A review of his shots of GoPro camera showed his entry and landing to a limited island of the North Sentinel.”
Photo Photo Maxar Satellite paintings of the island of Northern Sentinel, which is one of the Andaman islands, the Indian archipelago in the Bengal Bay.
Satellite image (c) 2024 Maxar Technologies. / Getty Images
Police said YouTuber was arrested on March 31, two days after his visit to the coast on the island of North Sentinel.
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Authorities revealed that Polyakov had visited the region twice, and both times they tried to approach the island. He used an inflatable kayak in October 2024, but was stopped by a hotel staff, police reported. He also tried to visit the island in January 2025.
During his trip in March, Polyakov used another inflatable ship with an engine to travel the open sea to the island.
Polyakov is not the first outsider to try to make contact with Sentineles.
In November 2018. The US missionary John Chau it was believed to be Killed by a tribe holding arrows on Northern Sentinel After coming to the island, carrying gifts that included football and fish.
He communicated with one of the tribes – who survived the hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants and are known for being attacked by anyone who approaches bows and arrows and spears – until they got angry and fired an arrow on him.
The arrow hit the book that Chau wore, which an acquaintance said was the Bible. The 26-year-old adventurer and a Christian missionary then returned to the boat of the fisherman waiting for a safe distance.
That night he wrote about his adventures and left notes with fishing combines. The next day he returned to the island of North Sentinel, November 16, 2018.
What happened was not known at the time, but the next day, the fishing combine watched from the ship how the tribes were dragging Chauu’s body along the beach and buried their remains.
OpenDer Pathak, Police Director General at Indian Islands Andaman and Nicobar, said at the time it was arrested that seven people were arrested for helping the American reach of the island of North Sentinel, including five fishermen, a friend of Chau and a local tourist guide.
Although the government is forbidden to visit the island, officials worked with anthropologists to try to recover his body. Chau arrows apparently shot and killed, but the cause of death was not confirmed as His body never recovered.
Survival International, a group that advocates the rights of indigenous and tribal people, issued a statement After the arrest of Polykov and said that the alleged act threatened his life and life of the tribe.
“The report that the US citizen was arrested after landing on the island of the North Sentinel in the Indian Ocean to make contact with the pristine Sentinelean people,” deeply disturbing, “said Caroline Pearce, director of the organization.
“The reinforcement of the belief that someone could be this reckless and idiotic. The actions of this person not only endangered their own lives, but have brought the lives of the entire Sentineles tribe. So far, it is very well known that non -constructed peoples do not have immunity to usual outdoor diseases such as flu or decay, which could be completely wiped.
“Sentineles have made their desire to avoid outsiders over the years incredibly clear – I’m sure many remember the 2018 incident in which the US missionary, John Allen Chau, killed them after landing them on their island to try to turn them into Christianity,” Pearce added.
Pearce said that “good news” was that Polyak’s arrested, but she was upset that he “allegedly came to the island in the first place.”
“Indian authorities have a legal responsibility to ensure that the Sentineles are safe from missionaries, influence on social media, people who illegally fish in their waters and anyone else who could try to make contact with them,” Pearce said.
Polyak’s YouTube channel uses a neo-orerientalist handle and has a six-piece series called “Afghanistan under the control of Taliban through American eyes.”
YouTuber, who spent three weeks in Afghanistan, was shown to hold a machine gun in the footage and travel around the county on the way.
– With files from Associated Press
& Copy 2025 Global News, Corus Enterinment Inc.
