YouTuber arrested for visiting forbidden island with Diet Coke for one of the world’s most isolated tribes
There are plenty of places on Earth that you'll likely never visit. From Norway's Svalbard Global Seed Vault to the USA's North Brother Island, they all have their reasons. Now, one YouTuber has been arrested for illegally visiting a remote area of the world and apparently leaving Diet Coke for its isolated inhabitants.
We've all seen YouTube stars doing dangerous things for content, and like when one content creator visited the equally illegal Snake Island, one has now broken the law in the quest for clicks. North Sentinel Island has already been covered as a forbidden locale, with the Indian government officially protecting the island and its Sentinelese tribe with an exclusion zone of five nautical miles that's patrolled by the Indian Navy.
It's not just because the Sentinelese have shown violence to strangers (more on that after the jump), but because they've been left cut off from the rest of the world, there are fears about what kind of infectious diseases could be introduced due to their lack of immunity.
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On his Neo-Orientalist YouTube channel, 24-year-old Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov only has a handful of videos, with each of his previous ones being him visiting Afghanistan. The self-confessed 'thrill seeker' was arrested after recording a video on North Sentinel Island while attempting to give its natives a can of Diet Coke and a coconut.
The New York Times reports how Polyakov went ashore on March 29 after scanning the shoreline for signs of life. Although police say he didn't make contact with any of the Sentinelese, he left these offerings, recorded a video with his GoPro, and took samples of sand. He was then arrested when he returned to Port Blair on March 31.
It's said that Polyakov 'meitculously' planned his visit by studying sea conditions and tides. It's well-documented that it's illegal to visit North Sentinel Island, while there have been several deaths linked to the Sentinelese.
Although peaceful contact was made with the Sentinelese in 1991, they reportedly warned people away if they stayed for too long, and Indian visits ceased in 1997.
When government helicopters checked on the tribe in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, it's said that the Sentinelese threw spears and arrows at helicopters, while two fishermen were killed when their boat drifted ashore in 2006.
The most famous case involved 26-year old American Christian missionary John Allen Chau, who was killed when he ventured there in 2018. Fishermen who'd illegally taken Chau to the island say they saw tribesmen drag his corpse along the beach to bury it.
While Polyakov is lucky to have returned from North Sentinel Island unscathed, he could be facing some serious consequences.
A police statement says: "His actions posed a serious threat to the safety and well-being of the Sentinelese people, whose contact with outsiders is strictly prohibited by law to protect their Indigenous way of life."
Condemning his actions, Survival International's Caroline Pearce added: "This person’s actions not only endangered his own life, they put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk.
“It’s very well known by now that uncontacted peoples have no immunity to common outside diseases like flu or measles, which could completely wipe them out."
They go on to say that while questioning Polyakov, he said he headed to North Sentinel Island because he has a "passion for adventure and his desire to undertake extreme challenges."
Set to appear in court on April 17, Polyakov is being held on charges including violating a law protecting aboriginal tribes. If convicted, he could be slapped with a fine and face up to five years in prison.