Mysterious island that’s home to ‘the most dangerous tribe in the world’ and tourists are forbidden from visiting
Ellie Kemp
Featured Image Credit: Getty/DigitalGlobe/ScapeWare3d/Survival International
A tropical getaway on a remote island is a dream vacation for many avid travellers, but you may want to steer clear of North Sentinel Island.
Who doesn't love relaxing on white sand beaches, with a cocktail in hand while staring out at crystal-clear oceans?
The Maldives, the Seychelles and Mauritius spring to mind.
But there's one island in the Indian ocean that tourists are banned from. While its nature remains untouched from the outside world, it's certainly not worth risking the trip over for.
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North Sentinel Island, one of 572 archipelagos making up the Andamans, is home to up to 500 natives.
A protected area of India, it's located in the Bay of Bengal, with Myanmar and Thailand the closest mainland countries.
The island s run by a voluntarily isolated tribe, known to brutally kill anyone who enters their territory.
That's why there's an exclusion zone of five nautical miles (9.3 km) surrounding it.
The Sentinelese - dubbed the most dangerous tribe in the world - are thought to have inhabited the area for around 60,000 years.
But some adventurers have let curiosity get the better of them. A handful have crossed the exclusion zone over the years - with fatal consequences.
The most recent person to take an illegal trip to the island was US evangelist John Allen Chau in 2018.
Sent from a Missouri-based missionary, he planned to live among and preach Christianity to the Sentinelese.
Their language isn't recognized by anyone outside the tribe so it's incredibly unlikely they'd have understood English.
Regardless, 26-year-old John visited the island multiple times.
He had visited Port Blair, the Andaman's capital, on a tourist visa before paying fisherman around $400 (£301) to be illegally ferried to North Sentinel.
On November 15, a boat dropped him some 700 meters away from the island's shore. John then canoed toward the coast with a waterproof bible, going against the fisherman's warning.
John offered the tribe gifts and attempted to communicate with them, but retreated after receiving a hostile response. Another visit saw him shot at by a boy with a metal-headed arrow that pierced the Bible he was holding, according to a diary he kept.
John's final visit was November 17 - from which he never returned. Fisherman claim they saw the tribe drag and bury his body on the island's shore.
Despite the efforts of Indian authorities, John's body was never recovered. Seven people, including the fisherman who helped him access the island, were arrested.
John had written in his diary prior to his mission: "I think it's worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed... Don't retrieve my body."