North Sentinel Island

North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which
also includes South Sentinel Island.It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous people in voluntary
isolation who have defended, often by force, their protected isolation from the outside world.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Act of 1956 prohibits travel to
the island and any approach closer than five nautical miles (9.26 km) in order to prevent the resident
tribespeople from contracting diseases to which they have no acquired immunity. The area is
patrolled by the Indian Navy.
Nominally, the island belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union
territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In practice, Indian authorities recognise the islanders'
desire to be left alone and restrict their role to remote monitoring; they do not prosecute them for
killing people. The island is a protected area of India. In 2018, the Government of India excluded 29
islands – including North Sentinel – from the Restricted Area Permit (RAP) regime, in a major
effort to boost tourism. In November 2018 the government's home ministry stated that the
relaxation of the prohibition was intended to allow researchers and anthropologists, with pre-
approved clearance, to visit the Sentinel islands.
The Sentinelese have repeatedly attacked approaching vessels. Such attacks have resulted in the
deaths of two fishermen in 2006 and a US missionary, John Allen Chau, in 2018.

Geography
North Sentinel lies 36km (22mi) west of the town of Wandoor in South Andaman Island, 50 km
(31 mi) west of Port Blair, and 59.6km (37.0mi) north of its counterpart South Sentinel Island. It
has an area of about 59.67km2 (23.04sqmi) and a roughly square outline.
North Sentinel is surrounded by coral reefs, and lacks natural harbours. The entire island, other than
the shore, is forested. There is a narrow, white-sand beach encircling the island, behind which the
ground rises 20 metres (66 ft), and then gradually to between 46 and 122 metres (151 and 400 ft): 
257  near the centre. Reefs extend around the island to between 0.93 and 1.5 km (0.5–0.8 nmi) from
the shore. A forested islet, Constance Island, also "Constance Islet", is located about 600 metres
(2,000 ft) off the southeast coastline, at the edge of the reef.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake tilted the tectonic plate under the island, lifting it by one to two
metres (3 to 7 ft). Large tracts of the surrounding coral reefs were exposed and became permanently
dry land or shallow lagoons, extending all the island's boundaries—by as much as one kilometre
(3,300 ft) on the west and south sides—and uniting Constance Islet with the main island.

Flora and fauna

The island is largely covered in tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest. Due to the lack of
surveys, the exact composition of the terrestrial flora and fauna remain unknown. In his 1880
expedition to the island, Maurice Vidal Portman reported an open, "park-like" jungle with numerous
groves of bullet-wood (Manilkara littoralis) trees, as well as huge, buttressed specimens of Malabar
silk-cotton tree (Bombax ceiba). Indian boar (Sus scrofa cristatus) are apparently found on the
island and a major food source for the Sentinelese, with reports by Portman referring to a "huge
heap" of pig skulls near a Sentinelese village. The IUCN Red List lists North Sentinel as being an
important habitat for coconut crabs (Birgus latro), which have been otherwise extirpated from most
of the other Andaman Islands aside from South Sentinel and Little Andaman. North Sentinel Island,
along with South Sentinel, is also considered a globally Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife
International, as despite the lack of surveys, the pristine habitat likely supports a diversity of
birdlife.
The marine life surrounding the island have also not been well-surveyed. A large coral reef is
known to circle the island, and mangroves are also known to fringe its banks. A c. 1999 report from
divers near the island indicate that the reefs around the island were bleached in the 1998 El Niño,
but had since seen new growth of coral. Sharks have allegedly also been seen in the waters off the
island. Sea turtles likely also occur near the island, as Portman referred to them also being a major
food source for the Sentinelese and one was sighted on a 1999 survey of the surrounding waters.
Dolphins were also sighted on the same survey.

History
See also: Sentinelese § Contact
The Onge, one of the other indigenous peoples of the Andamans, were aware of North Sentinel
Island's existence; their traditional name for the island is Chia daaKwokweyeh.  They also have
strong cultural similarities with what little has been remotely observed amongst the Sentinelese.
However, Onges brought to North Sentinel Island by the British during the 19th century could not
understand the Sentinelese language, so a significant period of separation is likely.

British visits
British surveyor John Ritchie observed "a multitude of lights" from an East India Company
hydrographic survey vessel, the Diligent, as it passed by the island in 1771. Homfray, an
administrator, travelled to the island in March 1867.
Towards the end of the same year's summer monsoon season, Nineveh, an Indian merchant ship,
was wrecked on a reef near the island. The 106 surviving passengers and crewmen landed on the
beach in the ship's boat and fended off attacks by the Sentinelese. They were eventually found by a
Royal Navy rescue party.

Portman's expeditions
An expedition led by Maurice Vidal Portman, a government administrator who hoped to research
the natives and their customs, landed on North Sentinel Island in January 1880. The group found a
network of pathways and several small, abandoned villages. After several days, six Sentinelese, an
elderly couple and four children, were kidnapped and taken to Port Blair. The colonial officer in
charge of the operation wrote that the entire group,
"sickened rapidly, and the old man and his wife died, so the four children were sent
back to their home with quantities of presents".
A second landing was made by Portman on 27 August 1883 after the eruption of Krakatoa was
mistaken for gunfire and interpreted as the distress signal of a ship. A search party landed on the
island and left gifts before returning to Port Blair.  Portman visited the island several more times
between January 1885 and January 1887.

After Indian independence

Landsat map
Indian exploratory parties under orders to establish friendly relations with the Sentinelese made
brief landings on the island every few years beginning in 1967. In 1975 Leopold III of Belgium, on
a tour of the Andamans, was taken by local dignitaries for an overnight cruise to the waters off
North Sentinel Island. The cargo ship MV Rusley ran aground on coastal reefs in mid-1977, and the
MV Primrose did so in August 1981. The Sentinelese are known to have scavenged both wrecks for
iron. Settlers from Port Blair also visited the sites to recover the cargo. In 1991, salvage operators
were authorised to dismantle the ships.
After the Primrose grounded on the North Sentinel Island reef on 2 August 1981, crewmen several
days later noticed that some men carrying spears and arrows were building boats on the beach. The
captain of Primrose radioed for an urgent drop of firearms so his crew could defend themselves.
They did not receive any because a large storm stopped other ships from reaching them, but the
heavy seas also prevented the islanders from approaching the ship. A week later, the crewmen were
rescued by a helicopter under contract to the Indian Oil And Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
The first peaceful contact with the Sentinelese was made by Triloknath Pandit, a director of the
Anthropological Survey of India, and his colleagues on 4 January 1991. Although Pandit and his
colleagues were able to make repeated friendly contact, dropping coconuts and other gifts to the
Sentinelese, no progress was made in understanding the Sentinelese language, and the Sentinelese
repeatedly warned them off if they stayed too long. Indian visits to the island ceased in 1997.
The Sentinelese survived the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and its after-effects, including the
tsunami and the uplifting of the island. Three days after the earthquake, an Indian government
helicopter observed several islanders, who shot arrows and threw spears and stones at the helicopter.
Although the tsunami disturbed the tribal fishing grounds, the Sentinelese appear to have adapted.
In January 2006, Sunder Raj and Pandit Tiwari, two Indian fishermen were fishing illegally in
prohibited waters and were killed by the Sentinelese when their boat drifted too close to the island.
There were no prosecutions.
In November 2018, John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old US missionary trained and sent by Missouri-
based All Nations, was killed during an illegal trip to the restricted island, planning to preach
Christianity to the Sentinelese. Seven individuals were taken into custody by Indian police on
suspicion of abetting Chau's illegal access to the island. Entering a radius of 5 nautical miles
(9.3 km) around the island is illegal under Indian law. Fishermen told police that they had seen the
tribespeople dragging Chau's body around but the authorities had not been able to independently
verify his death as of 25 November 2018. The case is being treated as a murder but there has been
no suggestion that the tribesmen would be charged.
Chau's journal indicated he was aware of the risks he faced, having been shot at by an islander with
a bow and arrow on a previous attempted visit, and of the illegality of his visits to the island. In a
final note to his family sent via the fishermen, Chau wrote:
"You guys might think I'm crazy in all this but 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 ..."

Chau's family did not insist on the return of the body to the US.
The practice of "human safari" tourism has been prevalent.

Demographics
Further information: Sentinelese people
North Sentinel Island is inhabited by indigenous people in voluntary isolation, the Sentinelese, who
have been defending their isolation by force. Their population was estimated to be between 50 and
400 people in a 2012 report. India's 2011 census indicates 15 residents in 10 households, but that
too was merely an estimate, described as a "wild guess" by the Times of India.
The population faces the potential threats of infectious diseases to which they have no immunity, as
well as violence from intruders. The Indian government has declared the entire island and its
surrounding waters extending 5 nautical miles (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) from the island to be an exclusion
zone.

Political status
The Andaman and Nicobar (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 provides protection
to the Sentinelese and other native tribes in the region. The Andaman and Nicobar Administration
stated in 2005 that they have no intention to interfere with the lifestyle or habitat of the Sentinelese
and are not interested in pursuing any further contact with them or governing the island. Although
North Sentinel Island is not legally an autonomous administrative division of India, scholars have
referred to it and its people as effectively autonomous, or independent.