This island in the Indian Ocean is home to a tribe that has lived there for 60,000 years, but it’s too dangerous to explore because they try to kill outsiders.
Seen from the air, it appears to be an idyllic island with beautiful beaches and dense forest, but tourists or fishermen dare not set foot on it due to the fearsome reputation of its inhabitants. Visitors who venture on or too close to North Sentinel Island risk being attacked by members of a mysterious tribe, The Sentinels, who reject modern civilization and prefer to have no contact with the outside world.
When they interact with outsiders, it’s often with violence. The indigenous Sentinelese tribe killed two men fishing illegally in 2006, and they have been known to fire flaming arrows and throw stones at low-flying aircraft or helicopters on reconnaissance missions.
Located in the Bay of Bengal, North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands and covers an area of 72 km². Officially administered by India since 1947, the island remains an enigma, despite having been inhabited for almost 60,000 years. Spared by modern civilization, very little is known about the Sentinelese people, their language, their rituals and the island itself.
Photo credit: Wikimedia – NASA Earth Observatory / Jesse Allen
It’s too dangerous to approach them due to their hostility to strangers, which means they are rarely photographed up close and hardly ever seen on video. Most photos and video clips that do exist are of poor quality.
Reports of the tribe’s population are also contradictory, with most estimates indicating that the island is populated by anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred inhabitants. The impact of the 2004 tsunami on the population and the island is still unknown, although the isolated tribe seems to have managed to avoid being wiped out. After the tsunami, one member was photographed trying to shoot an arrow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter.
Photo credit: Daily Mail Online
Often referred to as a « Stone Age tribe » (a title that their defenders take as an offense, saying that their members have adapted over time), the Presidia may be the most isolated tribe in the world, with the Indian government choosing not to meddle in their affairs. The government has made several unsuccessful attempts to establish contact, but has abandoned all attempts and allows the tribe to live as they choose on this island, which is the size of Manhattan.
The Indian authorities have gone so far as to prohibit any attempt to make contact with the Sentinels. It is illegal to approach the island. The Sentinels live virtually naked, surviving by hunting and fishing.
Photo credit: Daily Mail Online
In an article published in The Independent in 1993, we learn that Trilokinath Pandit, an academic, has led several anthropological expeditions to get closer to the Sentinels. He and his team are the only ones to date to have made contact with the indigenous tribe. But to do so, it took several attempts spread over 30 years. » We don’t know why they suddenly decided to lay down their arms, » he says in amazement. To enter the Sentinels’ lair, Pandit’s team had to remove their clothes and become accustomed to local traditions. The expedition was filmed:
According to the academic, the people are not cannibals and have no tribal chiefs, contrary to popular belief.
Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crashed on the island?
In March 2014, the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 went missing. Aerial images captured by NASA show significant traces of smoke escaping from the island. What if the Boeing had crashed on North Sentinel Island? However, the authorities have publicly denied this hypothesis.
Aerial image from Google Maps showing a shipwreck off the coast of the island