Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'
4 April 2025, 20:45
Fears have been raised that an American man who was arrested after leaving a can of Coke for the world’s most isolated tribe to try could have endangered all of their lives.
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Mykhailo Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island on Saturday using a makeshift craft to cross a 25-mile body of water, before leaving them the drink - and a coconut.
North Sentinel Island is home to the Sentinelese, a pre-Neolithic tribe that has no contact with the modern world notorious for killing people who land on the shore.
The island has been off limits since 1996 and Indian Navy vessels patrol an exclusion zone to prevent people from landing on the island.
Polyakov was arrested on his return from the island. But the Coke can has not been taken back because police cannot visit the island themselves, the Sun reported.
Caroline Pearce, the director of indigenous rights group Survival International, branded Polyakov's attempt to visit the island as "reckless and idiotic".
He could have brought diseases or microbes onto the island for which the tribespeople would likely have no immune defence.
Ms Pearce added: "This person’s actions not only endangered his own life, they put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk."
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Police said he used a GPS to navigate his way to the island on an inflatable boat that had a motor fitted at a local workshop.
He waited off shore for around an hour, blowing a whistle to make sure the coast was clear before stepping onto the island, leaving a can of Coke and a coconut, collected some sand and filmed a video before he left.
He returned to Kurma Dera Beach at 7pm, where local fishermen spotted him and alerted the police.
Police said Polyakov, 24, had previously attempted illegal interactions with the archipelago’s other indigenous tribes.
“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,” a police spokesman said.
American missionary John Chau was killed by the tribe in November 2018. He was killed in a hail of arrows as he went ashore on North Sentinel Island to try and teach the tribe about Jesus.
It is unclear if anyone went back to the island to retrieve the can of Coke and coconut left by Polyakov.
North Sentinel Island is out of bounds even to the Indian navy in a bid to protect its reclusive inhabitants who number only about 150.
The tribe also attracted international attention in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami, when a member fired arrows at a helicopter.
The Sentinelese hunt and gather in the forest, and fish in the island’s waters on narrow outrigger canoes, which can only be used in shallow waters as they are steered and propelled with a pole like a punt.
