A place can be dangerous to visit for a very large array of reasons.
It could be political instability rendering the country unsafe, maybe an an environmental catastrophe, or even the local flora and fauna making a trip inadvisable.
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But travel influencer Callum Abroad, whose Twitter bio describes his occupation as being to 'travel the world to places your mother would rather you didn’t,' has been advised not to visit one place in particular.
Callum is no stranger to dangerous locations.
His YouTube channel sees him visiting all the most perilous locales in the world and documenting his time there.
Most recently he has visited Afghanistan under the Taliban, posting several videos from the country. He has previously visited Ukraine, Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia.
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His videos see him speaking to people who live in the various locations to find out about their history and daily lives.
But there's now place that even Callum has been told to steer clear of.
The location is North Sentinel Island.
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This is a small island in the Bay of Bengal as part of the Andaman Islands.
It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous population estimated between 50 and 200 people who have maintained an almost total isolation from the outside world.
Posting to Twitter, people were quick to advise him not to go.
One person said: "Leave them be mate. Plenty of more interesting places to visit around the globe!"
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Another wrote: "Step too far that one mate. Don’t do it."
A third advised: "Leave em alone man."
The Sentinelese are one of the last communities who remain uncontacted, and who are wholly unwilling to have any engagement with the modern world.
This is not without good reason. During the mid 19th century the British carried out extensive operations in the Andamans.
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This included the establishment of a penal colony for Indian rebels, with conditions as horrendous as you would imagine Britain would inflict on Indians who defied their rule.
It's not a huge leap to imagine that the Sentinelese were warned about the dangers of colonisers in the region by other indigenous communities in the area, and have maintained their isolation since.
Anyone who approaches the island is met with warnings, which are followed by arrows if they get much closer.
This has proven fatal in the past, when a missionary from the US called John Allen Chau travelled to the island in 2018, ignoring laws preventing an approach, hoping to convert them to Christianity.
Chau was ultimately killed by the Sentinelese for his repeated incursions.
North Sentinel Island has an exclusion zone of three nautical miles imposed. This is more to protect the Sentinelese than anyone foolish enough to try and approach them.
Even making the charitable assumption that someone were to go with the very best of intentions, they could end up inadvertently killing them by bringing diseases the Sentinelese have no immunity to.
With that and all the other restrictions in mind, it would be best to simply let the Sentinelese live in peace.
Topics: News, Travel, World News
Kit Roberts