North Sentinelese: A ferocious tribe.

It was Sunday morning and also a holiday, conclusively had a lot of leisure time. so thought to kill time watching YouTube videos. Scrolling down the page I had my very first encounter with the topic a video titled "An untouched people" watching that 2-3 min video aroused a sense of curiosity in me, so I decided to dig further into the topic, and the information which i was able to gather really startled me with the fact that even in 21st century such place & people exist and which I think is worth sharing with my readers.

What is north Sentinelese and who are they?

North Sentinel is an island that lies in the Andaman archipelago of the Bay of Bengal having coordinates 11°33’N 92°14’E.

It is Administered by India since 1947 as part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory. which is home to perhaps most fierce tribe in the world "North Sentinelese". It is believed that they are among the first people who descended from Africa vaguely 60,000 years ago. They are referred to as Negritos (from the Spanish diminutive for Negro) due to their dark skin tone.

Shedding light on the history of North Sentinelese

It is almost impossible to get there and even if you somehow manage to, there is no guarantee that you will be back safely. In order to understand their hostility towards outsiders, we have to take a look at their timeline. The earliest mention of north sentinel was in 1771 by John Ritchie, Ritchie was a British surveyor who passed the island on the "Diligent", an East India company survey vessel. He made a note of the island's multitude of light. In the summer of 1867 an Indian merchant ship the "Ninveh", wrecked on the reef surrounding sentinel island. Around 86 surviving passengers and 20 crew members landed safely on the island however on the third day, they were attacked by Sentinelese. The captain escaped the attack and was later rescued by a passing brig. A navy ship was sent to the rescue of remaining people who managed to defend themselves from sentinels with sticks and stones. In January 1880, an armed British expedition managed a successful landing on north sentinel island which was led by Maurice Vidal Portman the officer in charge of Andamanese, they found a network of pathways and freshly abandoned villages. Surveying the island Portman found not a single tribe member, they had simply vanished in the forest. After many days of searching they found an elderly couple and six children, they were captivated and deported to Port Blair where the old man and his wife sickened rapidly and died, so the four children were sent back to their homes. Maurice expressed little remorse for his action instead he noted Sentinelese as "peculiarly idiotic expression of countenance, and manner of behaving". In 1896, three escaped Indian convicts fled port Blair and drifted to the island, Two of them were drowned on the way and the lone survivor who made it to the beach was soon killed by Sentinelese. After this incident island was left alone for a century. In 1947, India won its independence from British rule and gained control of the Andaman islands, but ignored sentinels for about 20 years. In 1967, Indian anthropologist Triloknath pandit (Though his last name matches with me but he is not my relative!), planned a major expedition to north sentinel island on order of the governor of the Andaman islands. He was offered of course armed police as well as number of naval officers, two patrol boats and dinghies. On his first expedition, the Sentinelese went back into the jungle and there was no contact. On 29th March 1970, pandit and his party found themselves trapped on the reef flats between north sentinel island and Constance islet. Men were converging from all direction waist deep in water threatening to shoot them, however they approached closer and threw a couple of fish towards them. this gesture had mellowing effect on their angry mood and few discarded their weapons and gestured to throw the fish. In spring of 1974 a team of anthropologist visited island to film a documentary "Man in search of man" accompanied by a national geographic photographer as the boat passed the reef the tribesmen emerged from jungle to greet them with hails of arrows. one of which struck the documentary's director in left thigh. In mid-1977, MV Rusley a cargo ship ran aground on north sentinel island's coastal reef. The sentinels are known to have scavenged the wreck of iron for making weapons such as using it at arrow's tip. In 1981, another cargo ship MV primrose ran aground near north sentinel island, Several days later the crewman spotted a number of sentinels on the beach carrying various homemade weapons are making 2-3 wooden boats, No sooner than a wireless operator in Hongkong received a distress call from the captain of the primrose. After a week the crew was rescued by the helicopter working under contract for the Indian Oil and Natural Gas Commission, In the meantime, the crew staved off sentinels with 24-hour guard, flare guns, axes and lengths of pipe. During 1970-80 pandit undertook several visits to the island sometimes as an expert advisor in tour parties including dignitaries who wished to encounter an aboriginal tribe. At last on 4th January 1991, after 20 years of unsuccessful attempts, pandit and his team were able to establish first peaceful contact with Sentinelese described as "Last first friendly encounter" in history. He said in an interview "That they voluntarily came forward to meet us- it was unbelievable. they must have come to a decision that the time had come. it could not have happened on the spur of movement" but pandit was wrong.

First ever contact made by indian anthropologist T.N. pandit

Later in 1991, ship breakers Mohamed brothers were granted permission by the government to extract metal from the wrecks of Rusley and Primrose. On the workers first visit the sentinels came to the beach and started shooting arrows towards them, police accompanying them responded by fire shots in the air. After this incident, the government added 5km exclusion zone around north sentinel island, under the provision of Andaman and Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation (ANPATR) – 1956. Fast forward In 2004 three days after the disastrous earthquake in the Indian Ocean, the Indian coast guard helicopter flew over the island to check for the sign of survival. To their surprise, a lone sentineli came out of the jungle and took aim at the helicopter.

Sentinels taking aim at navy helicopter

Evidently, the Sentinelese had survived the earthquake including it's after effect like tsunami and lifting of their island. In 2005, the Andaman and Nicobar Administration stated that they have no intention to interfere again with North Sentinel Island. “Only a few officials in our administration will have access to the aboriginal habitats to protect them from poaching and illegal intrusions by the settlers. We will ensure their food security, the security of their habitats, we will encourage them to pursue their traditional lifestyle, there is no question of imposing any outside culture or beliefs on them,” Ray told the BBC. On 26 January 2006, Two fishermen illegally fishing for mud crabs near the island were killed by sentinels, Coast guard helicopter which was sent to retain their bodies was greeted with hail arrows. Very recently In November 2018 an American missionary John Chau in an attempt to spread Christianity lurched on the island with the help of fishermen to whom he had paid to smuggle to the island was killed by the tribesmen. Fishermen noted the scene they told the police that john's body was been dragged on the beach and later it was buried by tribesmen armed with bows and arrows. After several attempts to retrieve his body police finally came to the conclusion that it is impossible to retrieve the body of Chau without provoking further conflict with Sentinelese, so it would be better to leave his body and the Sentinelese as it is.

Does their hostility justifiable?

By looking at their behavior one might think that they are very cruel people but their rejection to outside people contact is very much logical, as for so many centuries they have remained in isolation naturally their body is very little or absolutely no immune to modern diseases and which any outsider can take to the island putting the tribal people life at utter risk, even common flu can wipe out their entire population (recall the Portman incident). The people who say that they can be benefited from modern technology, medicine, agriculture etc. is just a fairytale. For instance, the "Jarawa tribe" which is another tribe on Andaman island mainly inhabitants of the south and middle Andaman, Initially they also shunned the contacts with outsiders but eventually, they accepted contact with the outside world and what it did was open a world which they were unable to comprehend. They were unable to decipher between right and wrong things, which was introduced to them by these so-called "modern society". They are now facing like alcoholism, sexual exploitation of women of the tribe, poaching, etc. They are at the losing end of the interaction. There will be several generations of suffering before they could get into the mainstream and enjoy the fruit of civilization. What's your view on this?. Please do comment in the comment box.