Sentinelese Tribe: The Last Untouched Tribe On Earth

Sentinelese are the inhabitants of the North Sentinel island in the Andaman Nicobar archipelago in the Indian ocean controlled by India. North sentinelese are one of the last un-contacted tribes on earth who are untouched by the modern civilisation. They consistently reject any contact or intrusion from the outside world for a long time and have even killed people who approached or try to make contact with them. So India declared North Sentinel Island a tribal reserve and prohibited travel within 3  miles of the island. India also performs constant patrolling and monitoring to prevent intruders to the island.

the North Sentinel Island has an area of 59.67 km^2 and is surrounded by coral leaves and has a tropical climate. Most of the estimates about their population is around 50 to 200, but there has been reports showing their population as high as 500. Most of their practices are thought to be not evolved beyond stone age as they use bows and arrows to hunt for food and no signs are found showing their knowledge of making fire. Also no signs of knowledge of agriculture. They mainly eat sea food such as mud crabs and molluscan shells which are abundant in the area.

 

 The first recorded contact with the sentinelese were in 1867 by a merchant vessel 'Nineveh' foundered on the north sentinel island. The passengers of the vessel were subject to assault by a group of tribes with arrows and stones. Many attempts were made later on to make peaceful contact with the tribe but often resulted in death and attack with arrows. The first official and professional visit to the island was in 1967 by a anthropologist T.N Pandit with a crew of 20 people. When he visited the island he saw through binoculars,several people who retreated from the shore upon seeing the visitors. The team advanced in to the island and saw raw honey, skeltal remains of pigs, wild fruits, a multi prolonged spear, bows, arrows, fishing nets and wooden buckets. The team failed to make any contact and withdrew after leaving gifts. Pandit made several visits to the island during the 1970s and 1980s and many of these visit got friendly receptions and some ended in violent encounters. A crew of National Geographic also received a rain of arrows when they tried to shoot a documentary 'Man In Search Of Man' in 1974. The last contact was in 2018 when an american namely 'John Allen Chau' on behalf of christian missionaries tried to convert the sentenelese in to christians resulted in his death