US tourist arrested for landing on forbidden Indian tribal island

NEW DELHI - Indian police said on April 3 they had arrested a US tourist who sneaked onto a highly restricted island carrying a coconut and a can of Diet Coke to a tribe untouched by the modern world.

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel – part of India’s Andaman Islands – in a bid to meet the Sentinelese people, who are believed to number only around 150.

All outsiders, Indians and foreigners alike, are banned from travelling within 5km of the island to protect the Indigenous people from outside diseases and to preserve their way of life.

“The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation,” Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal told AFP.

Satellite photographs show a coral reef-fringed island – stretching to some 10km at its widest point – with thick forest and white sand beaches.

The Sentinelese last made international headlines in 2018 after they killed American missionary John Allen Chau, 27, who landed illegally on their beach.

Mr Chau’s body was not recovered and there were no investigations over his death because of the Indian law prohibiting anyone from going to the island.

India sees the wider Andaman and Nicobar Islands as strategically sited on key global shipping lanes. They are closer to Myanmar than mainland India.

New Delhi plans to invest at least US$9 billion (S$12 billion) to expand naval and air bases, troop accommodations, the port and the main city in the region.

Bows and arrows

Mr Dhaliwal said Polyakov kept blowing a whistle off the shore of North Sentinel Island for about an hour to attract the tribe’s attention before he went ashore.

“He landed briefly for about five minutes,