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Indian Coast Guard / Survival International
Sentinels have always resisted outside contact
An American was allegedly killed by an endangered tribe in the Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar.
Fishermen who took the man to North Sentinel said that tribesmen shot him with arrows and left his body on the beach.
Local media say that he was a missionary. He was identified as John Allen Chau.
Contact with indigenous Andaman tribes living in isolation from the world is illegal. Estimates indicate that the number of sentinels is between 50 and 150 or so.
Seven fishermen were arrested for illegally bringing the American to the island, police said.
Local media said he wanted to meet the tribe to preach Christianity to them.
"The police said that Chau had already been there four or five times on the North Sentinel Island with the help of local fishermen," reporter Subir Bhaumik told BBC Hindi. islands for years.
"The number of people belonging to the Sentinel tribe is so small that it does not even understand how to use money.In fact, it is illegal to get in touch with them."
In 2017, the Indian government also said that taking photographs or making videos of Andaman indigenous tribes would be punishable by up to three years' imprisonment.
Launch arrows on helicopters
Geeta Pandey, BBC News, Delhi
I heard about Sentinelese for the first time in 2004, just after the devastating tsunami of the Indian Ocean.
A few days later, I was at the daily press briefing of the authorities when we learned that isolated tribesmen had survived.
A patrol navy helicopter flew over North Sentinel Island in the archipelago where the Sentinels live to watch them.
As they descended a little to take a closer look, members of the tribe started to shoot them arrows.
"So we knew that they were safe," says the pilot.
The Sentinels are often described as the most dangerous tribe in the world and, unlike other African tribes of the archipelago, threatened with extinction, they resist contact with the outside world for nearly 60,000 years.
In 2006, the Survival International campaign group claimed that the tribe had killed two fishermen who had illegally attempted to enter their island.
The AFP news agency quoted a source as saying that Chau had tried not to reach the island on 14 November. But he tried again two days later.
"He was attacked by arrows but he continued to walk in. The fishermen saw the tribes tie a rope around his neck and drag him around, they were scared and ran away," the report said.
Chau's body was spotted on November 20th.
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"This is a difficult case for the police," said Mr Bhaumik. "You can not even stop the Sentinelese."
A global organization such as Survival International, based in London, is campaigning to protect indigenous Andamans tribes.
The group's international director, Stephen Corry, called the incident a "tragedy" that "should never have been allowed to happen".
"The Sentinels have shown time and time again that they want to be alone and that their wishes should be respected," he said. "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.The fear of the aliens by the Sentinels is so completely understandable. "
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The two Andaman indigenous tribes in danger – the Jarawa and the Sentinelese – are hunter-gatherers and contact with the outside world would expose them to a risk of contracting the disease.
Sentinels are particularly vulnerable: their complete isolation means that they are unlikely to be immune to the most common diseases such as influenza and measles.
"It is not impossible that the Sentinelese come to be infected with deadly pathogens against which they do not enjoy any immunity, with the potential to wipe out the entire tribe", said Mr. Corry.
