Why This Indian Island and Its Tribe Are Illegal To Visit
North Sentinel Island and the Sentinelese people are a unique mystery that we will perhaps never fully understand.
It sounds like the premise of a thrilling new HBO Max TV series…
It’s the year 2022 and there exists an island that has remained largely unvisited by humanity because of a fear of the tribal inhabitants that live on it. A fear that this tribe might kill any visitors they see, as they have done in the past, but also a fear that visitors could inadvertently kill members of the tribe by passing on an infection they haven’t acquired immunity from.
This isn’t the premise of a fictional TV series, it’s real life. The island in question is just off the coast of India in the Bay of Bengal and it’s called North Sentinel Island.
The fact that North Sentinel Island and its tribal inhabitants truly exist is both encouraging and terrifying in equal measures. We should be encouraged because it wouldn’t take much of any country’s military force to take over this Indian island. The inhabitants have been known to attack visitors with spears and arrows, well that’s no match for military-grade rifles and grenades. The fact that the Indian government has chosen to let this tribe live on their own terms…
