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NEW DELHI –
An American adventurer who kayaked on an isolated Indian island populated by a tribe known to have fired on aliens with bows and arrows was killed, police said Wednesday. Officials said they were working with anthropologists to recover the body.
Dependera Pathak, chief policy officer of the Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar, said seven fishermen had been arrested for helping the Americans reach North Sentinel Island. Residents of the Sentinels are resistant to strangers and often attack people who approach them, and visits to the island are severely limited by the government.
Pathak identified the American as John Allen Chau and said that he had told a hotel that he was 26 years old. It seems that Chau was shot down by arrows, but the cause of death can only be confirmed when his body is found, Pathak told The Associated Press.
"It was a misguided adventure case," Pathak said.
Chau arrived in the area on October 16 and stayed at a hotel while he was preparing to visit the island. It was not his first time in the region: he had visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2015 and 2016, Pathak said. North Sentinel is located in the Andaman Islands, at the intersection of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
Chau arranged his visit to the island through a friend who hired seven fishermen at the price of 325 dollars to take him on a boat, which also towed his kayak, said Pathak.
The American landed in his kayak on November 15 and sent the boat with the fishermen at sea to avoid detection, said Pathak. He traded with some members of the tribe, offering gifts like a football and fish. But members of the tribe got angry and shot an arrow at him, hitting a book he was carrying, Pathak said.
After his kayak was damaged, Chau went swimming back to the fishermen's boat, which was waiting for him at a place agreed in advance. He spent the night telling his stories on pages he gave to fishermen, Pathak said. He returned to the meeting of the tribes on November 16th.
What happened then is not known. But the next morning, the fishermen waiting watched from afar the men of the tribe pull Chau's body. They left for Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman Islands and Nicobar, where they announced the news to a friend of Chau, who informed his family, said Pathak.
The police accused the seven fishermen of endangering the life of the American by bringing him into a forbidden zone.
Chau had lived in Oklahoma, where he attended Roberts Oral University, and in southwestern Washington State, where he attended Vancouver Christian High School. Telephone messages left to some members of his family were not immediately returned on Wednesday.
Kathleen Hosie, spokeswoman for the United States Consulate in Chennai, capital of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southern India, said she was aware of reports of a American in the islands, but could not say more for reasons of confidentiality.
Survival International, an organization that works for the rights of tribal peoples, said the killing of the American should prompt the Indian authorities to adequately protect the lands of the Sentinels and other Andaman tribes.
"The British colonial occupation of the Andaman Islands decimated the tribes who lived there, wiping out thousands of tribesmen.A mere fraction of the original population survived.Fear of strangers is therefore perfectly understandable "said Stephen Corry, group director, said in a statement.
Shiv Viswanathan, a sociologist and professor at Jindal Global Law School, said North Sentinel Island was a protected area and not open to tourists. "The exact population of the tribe is not known, but it is decreasing and the government needs to protect them," Viswanathan said.
Poachers are known to fish illegally in the waters around the island, catching turtles and diving for lobster and sea cucumber fishing. Tribespeople killed two Indian fishermen in 2006 when their boat came to sea. detached and drifted on the shore.
One of Chau's friends, Casey Prince, 39, of Cape Town, South Africa, said he met the adventurer about six years ago while Chau was director of the football team from Oral Roberts University, Oklahoma. Chau and other members of the team traveled to South Africa to participate in a football development and social leadership program founded by the Prince, the Ubuntu Football Academy.
Since then, Chau has returned to Prince's home and his family or guardian and coach in the program about four times. More recently, he went from mid-September to mid-October, said Prince.
The prince described it as being easy to love, kind, cheerful and animated by two passions: a love of the outdoors and a fervent Christianity.
"He was an explorer in the soul," Prince said. "He loved creation and was there, I think I probably found and connected with God in this way and deeply so."
Prince refused to discuss what Chau had told him about his travel plans to India or the islands, saying he wanted to focus his comments on his identity instead. But he said that Chau, who has already spoken of being bitten by a rattlesnake, accepted the dangers of his adventures.
"If he took a risk, he was very conscious of it," Prince said.
(Copyright © 2018 by The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved.)
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