Tourist who visited an isolated tribe faces up to five years in jail
The “thrill-seeking” YouTuber who visited an isolated tribe has been arrested and may spend years in jail for his reckless actions.
The tourist who visited an isolated tribe and was later arrested could be jailed for up to five years for his reckless stunt.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, a “thrill-seeking” Ukrainian-American YouTuber, made the illicit visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on March 29, where he left the Sentinelese people a can of Coke and a coconut as tribute.
He was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Monday, March 31 after he allegedly took a single-seat boat to the restricted area – the same spot American missionary John Allen Chau was shot with an arrow after he tried to convert the tribe to Christianity.
Mr Polyakov allegedly entered North Sentinel Island without any authorisation.
“If found guilty, he may face three to five years in prison for breaching the law that prohibits unauthorised entry into the areas inhabited by protected tribes of North Sentinel Island,” the director general of Andaman and Nicobar Police said.
North Sentinel Island is often described as the “hardest place to visit in the world”. It is one of the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island.
The 24-year-old travelled nine hours in a small rubber dinghy where he tried to get the native people’s attention by blowing a whistle and leaving them a can of coke and a coconut as tribute, according to local media, but he was ignored.
Survival International, a group that advocates for the rights of tribal people, describes the Sentinelese as “the most isolated Indigenous people in the world” living on an island around the size of Manhattan.
There’s believed to be only around 150 of the Sentinelese people.
Travel within 5.5km of the island was prohibited by India’s government in 1956, and the territory is demarcated as a tribal reserve. This is to protect the Indigenous people from outside diseases and to preserve their way of life.
YouTuber’s GoPro seized
Police seized a GoPro camera from Mr Polyakov where footage on the gadget confirmed his visit to the prohibited area.
The reason for his visit is unclear. However, during interrogation, he allegedly told police he was a “thrill seeker” and had visited Afghanistan to meet Taliban members in the past, Times of India reported.
Mr Polyakov has been linked to a YouTube channel with just over 530 subscribers with clips detailing his experiences in Afghanistan.
There’s a six-part series titled ‘Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan Through American Eyes’ that shows the 24-yer-old being handed a machine gun by the Taliban and exploring Soviet-era tanks in the area.
The clips were uploaded in October last year with the influencer visiting Afghanistan despite the US State Department placing the country under a level four ‘do not travel’ alert.
At the start of each clip he shares a disclaimer that “the video is not an endorsement of any particular political party, movement or ideology”.
“In this series, I take a 3-week road trip across what has become the unrecognised Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan following the chaotic US withdrawal in 2021 and the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban,” Mr Polyakov explains in the video caption of the series.
“Recognised as a terrorist group by many countries, the Taliban maintain a strict theocratic regime in which music, dancing, women’s education, being clean-shaven, birth control, and even the depiction of faces are forbidden.
“Join me as I navigate one of the most dangerous and unquestionably the most conservative country in the world.”
Following his illegal visit to North Sentinel Island, the influencer appeared briefly before a judge in Port Blair on Monday and is next due in court on Saturday.
“The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation,” Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal told AFP.
The Hindu Times reported that after Mr Polyakov reached the northeastern shore at around 10am on March 29, he used binoculars to survey the area but saw no inhabitants.
As such, he remained offshore for an hour, blowing a whistle to attract attention, but received no response.
He landed briefly for about five minutes, left the offerings on the shore, collected sand samples, and recorded a video before returning to his boat, police said, according to the publication.
He was reportedly spotted by a local fisherman at around 7pm upon his return journey to Kurma Dera Beach.
The Director General of Police (DGP) of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal, told the Press Trust of India, they are gathering more details about Mr Polyakov and his intention to visit the reserved tribal area.
“We are also trying to find where else he went during his stay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands,” Mr Dhaliwal said.
“We are questioning the hotel staff where he was staying in Port Blair.”
Officials maintain that this was not Mr Polyakov’s first journey to reach the isolated tribe. Back in January, the 24-year-old illegally filmed the remote Jarawa tribe while visiting the Baratang Islands, police said, according to the New York Post.
He also attempted to conduct reconnaissance of the North Sentinel Island using an inflatable kayak last October, but staff at the hotel where he was staying stopped him, officials said.
The Sentinelese are among five remote tribes who live on the islands and who are known to be hostile to outsiders.
Mr Chau, an American missionary, was killed by the tribe in 2018 and his body remains buried on the island to this day.
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