US National Enters Sentinelse Abode illegally
An alarming incident involving US national Mykhailo Polyakov’s illegal incursion attempt into North Sentinel Island raises serious concerns about security lapses in the Andaman archipelago.
Did Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, the arrested US national try to imitate John Allen Chau in the hitherto prohibited North Sentinelese Island in the Andaman archipelago late last month?
Or did he have other intentions which might be quite harmful for this lone prehistoric tribe inhabiting this tiny island for hundreds and thousands of years?
In fact, months of meticulous homework and series of recces on tip-toes by Polyakov (24) have left the cops stunned and exposed some bizarre chinks in the security network in and around the archipelago that is home to six aboriginal tribes.
The security breach is particularly worrisome as the nearest Beijing-controlled territory Coco islands is approximately 55 nautical kms (34 nautical miles) north of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
Polyakov was detained by a special police team of the Andaman administration on March 31 for illegally sneaking into the strictly prohibited tribal reserve area of the aboriginal Sentinelese tribe. The intruder had no authorisation from the administration for his secret visit, police confirmed.
A Special Investigation Team(SIT) constituted thereafter at the behest of the union home ministry conducted a detailed survey of the island from a safe distance on April 5 last to verify if the arrested foreigner had deliberately left any substance on the island to entice the islanders declared endangered.
What has baffled the administration as well as police is Polyakov’s repeated forays into the archipelago since October last year as a US tourist and his secret plans to sneak into the prohibited island, 64 kms southwest of Port Blair. On top of it, his modus operandi too which has triggered a volley of suspicion, has made the sleuths sit up.
However, prior to delving into this issue, let us just briefly find out why the issue is so security sensitive and deemed to be dangerous.
The Sentinelese as we know, are the most isolated indigenous aboriginal tribes in the world. Researchers have often tended to compare them with those tribes living for centuries in the deepest part of the Amazon forest.
This prehistoric tribe who live in a strictly secluded manner in the tiny North Sentinel island, approximately the size of Manhattan, vehemently resist all efforts to establish any contact with the external world.
Notorious for their violent nature, they attack each and every intruder with home-made bows and spears and have even rebuffed all gestures so far to communicate with the remaining five aboriginal tribes including the Shompens of the archipelago.
Incidentally, Shompens are the ones who have also declined all attempts to establish contacts with the external civilisation and restricted their habitat to that small rainforest island of Great Nicobar.
A rough estimate puts the number of the Sentinelese anywhere between 50 and 70. They speak their own language which is not intelligible even to other Negritos of the archipelago. They are nomads and both men and women wear only leaf ornaments around their head, neck and arms and depend on sea fish and other substances in the forest surrounding the 47 kms of the island for their sustenance.
In order to preserve their pristine primitive habitat, the Sentinelese have been designated as a particularly vulnerable tribal entity in India. Any contact with the external world and all access to the island have since been debarred as they might be vulnerable to modern infectious diseases, having little or no immunity to myriad infections plaguing the civilised world.
Earlier, John Allen Chau, an American citizen and preacher, shot into notoriety after his infamous yet fatal trip to this North Sentinel Island on November 16, 2018. Chau established secret contacts with the local fishermen who ferried him to the island upon some monetary consideration.
Chau, who was believed to have conducted prior visits to the island, landed on the shore aboard a canoe. The preacher’s preaching mission ended in a dangerous smoke as the ferocious tribes severed his head before burying it in the sand and threw his torso into the sea. The local fishermen fished out the headless body a couple of days later.
Polyakov, whose father is of Ukrainian origin, must have endeavoured to take a leaf out of Chau’s tragic exploits. He had first visited Port Blair in October last year and undertook a recce in vain around the North Sentinel Island on an inflatable kayak; but the alert hotel staff put paid to his plans.
Undeterred by the setback, Polyakov who returned in January this year, managed to hire a motorboat and reached Baratang island where the Jarawa tribals have been rehabilitated. He secretly videographed the Jarawas with a GoPro camera and left India.
Upon his arrival again in Port Blair on March 26 last on a tourist visa, Polyakov discreetly manoeuvred himself to the forbidden island aboard a boat from the Kurma Dera beach on March 29. Unlike Chau who had carried a Bible, he armed himself with a binocular, a coconut and a can of Cola as part of his ‘offerings’ to the Sentinelese.
However, instead of quietly assessing the forbidden region, he blew a whistle several times in vain to attract the attention of those fierce tribals. A deeper look through his binocular failed to find any trace of the tribals, police quoted him as having said.
A disappointed Polyakov left the offerings on the shore, collected some sand samples from the beach and made a brief video of the surroundings before reaching his boat for a safe return journey to Dera beach.
While the custodial interrogation of Polyakov has currently been on, an official communication to the Ministry of External Affairs and the US Embassy has been forwarded by the Andaman administration.
Luckily for the endangered Sentinelese to whom reverberations of the whistling failed to reach, the aborted bid of Polyakov is likely to spur the authorities to mount a fool-proof vigil in and around the Andaman and Car Nicobar region to stymie any foreign aggression in near future.
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