According to global reports, a daredevil YouTube influencer has been taken into custody for visiting a remote Indian island where he attempted to make illegal contact with the indigenous inhabitants.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, a 24-year-old from Arizona, allegedly journeyed to the off-limits North Sentinel Island and attempted to present a coconut and a can of Diet Coke as “gifts for the Sentinelese,” as reported by The Andaman Chronicle and The Washington Post, with reference to local law enforcement.
Reports suggest that the police in Andaman and Nicobar Islands mentioned his visit was driven by “his adventurous spirit and his eagerness to tackle extreme challenges.” This was purportedly his third attempt at making the journey, according to The Post.
Polyakov was also apparently wearing a GoPro portable camera, showing him entering the island’s shore “claiming unofficial representation of the U.S.,” police said in a statement.
Contact with the Sentinelese people is strictly prohibited due to their protected indigenous way of life, the Chronicle reported.
The Jarawas, a tribe of small negroids genetically similar to the South African bushmen, live on the Andaman Islands, an archipelago stretching between Burma and Indonesia in the middle of the Bay of Bengal (Indian Ocean). (Thierry Falise/LightRocket )
“We are getting more details about him and his intention to visit the reserved tribal area. We are also trying to find where else he had visited during his stay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We are questioning the hotel staff where he was staying in Port Blair,” Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal, director general of police of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said in a statement to the Chronicle.
Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, a nonprofit seeking to help indigenous and tribal societies around the world, called Polyakov’s actions “deeply disturbing” and noted the death of an American missionary who attempted to make contact with people on the island in 2018.
Contact with the Sentinelese people is strictly prohibited due to their protected indigenous way of life, The Andaman Chronicle reported. (Ed Reeve/View Pictures/Universal Images Group)
“The Sentinelese have made their wish to avoid outsiders incredibly clear over the years – I’m sure many remember the 2018 incident in which an American missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed by them after landing on their island to try to convert them to Christianity,” Pearce said in a statement. “It’s good news that the man in this latest incident has been arrested, but deeply disturbing that he was reportedly able to get onto the island in the first place”
Pearce added that uncontacted indigenous peoples across the globe “are experiencing the invasion of their lands on a shocking scale.”
“Countless uncontacted peoples in the Amazon are being invaded by loggers and gold-miners. The uncontacted Shompen of Great Nicobar Island, not far from North Sentinel, will be wiped out if India goes ahead with its plan to transform their island into ‘the Hong Kong of India,’” Pearce continued. “The common factor in all these cases is governments’ refusal to abide by international law and recognize and protect uncontacted peoples’ territories.”
Polyakov is currently in judicial custody and has a hearing scheduled for April 17, The Post reported.
