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NEW DELHI – The Indian authorities were struggling Thursday to find a way to recover the body of an American killed after landing on land on an isolated island in the modern world.
John Allen Chau was killed last week by residents of North Sentinel who allegedly shot him with arrows and buried his body on the beach, police said.
But even officials do not go to North Sentinel, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, and where strangers are seen with suspicion and attacked.
"This is a difficult proposition," said Dependera Pathak, chief executive officer of the Andaman and Nicobar Indian Islands Police, where North Sentinel is located. "We must see what is possible, taking the greatest care of the group's sensitivity and legal requirements."
The police are consulting with anthropologists, tribal welfare specialists and specialists to find a way to recover the body, he said.
While visits to the island are very limited, Chau paid fishermen last week to take him near North Sentinel, using a kayak to row ashore and bringing gifts, including a football and a fish.
It was "a crazy adventure," said P.C. Joshi, professor of anthropology at the University of Delhi, studied the islands. "He invited this aggression."
Joshi noted that the visit risked not only Chau's life, but also that of islanders who have little resistance to many diseases.
"They are not immune to anything. A simple thing like the flu can kill them, "he said.
On the first day, Chau traded with members of his tribe – who survive by hunting, fishing and harvesting wild plants – until they get angry and throw an arrow at him. This so-called 26-year-old Christian adventurer and missionary then swam back to the fishing boat waiting at a safe distance.
That night, he wrote about his visit and left his notes to the fishermen. He returned to North Sentinel the next day, November 16th.
We do not know what happened then, but the next morning the fishermen watched from the boat the men of the tribes dragging Chau's body on the beach and burying his remains.
Pathak said seven people were arrested for helping Chau, including five fishermen, a friend of Chau and a local tourist guide.
It seems that Chau was shot down by arrows, but the cause of death can only be confirmed when his body is found, said Pathak.
In a post on Instagram, her family said she was crying him as a "beloved son, a brother, an uncle and a best friend". reach the island.
"He ventured voluntarily and his local contacts do not need to be persecuted for his own actions," said the family.
The authorities claim that Chau arrived in the area on October 16 and stayed on another island while he was preparing to travel to North Sentinel. It was not his first time in the region: he had visited the Andaman Islands in 2015 and 2016.
With the help of a friend, Chau hired fishermen for $ 325 to take him on a boat, Pathak said.
After the fishermen realized that Chau had been killed, they left for Port Blair, the capital of the chain of islands, where they announced the news to a friend of Chau, who informed his family said Pathak.
Police inspected the island by air on Tuesday, and a team of police and forest officials used a Coast Guard boat to return there on Wednesday. Another trip was scheduled for Thursday.
India has a very passive approach vis-à-vis the inhabitants of the island. Tribespeople killed two Indian fishermen in 2006 when their boat detached and drifted to shore, but Indian media reported that Indian officials had neither investigated nor sued the perpetrators of these death.
India has recently changed some of its rules regarding visiting isolated areas in Andamans. Although special permits are needed, the researchers say visits are now theoretically allowed in parts of the Andamans where they were once completely forbidden, including North Sentinel. Chau was not licensed, the police said.
Chau's wish since high school to go to North Sentinel was to share Christianity with indigenous peoples, said Mat Staver, founder and president of Covenant Journey, a program that offers visiting university students in Israel the opportunity to assert their Christian faith. Chau went through this program in 2015.
"He did not go for adventure alone. I have no doubt that it was to bring them the gospel of Jesus, "Staver said.
Staver testified that Chau's latest notes to his family on November 16 told them that they might think he was crazy, but that he felt it was worth it and asked that they be not angry if he was killed.
Prior to attending Oral Roberts University, Chau had lived in southwestern Washington State and had gone to Vancouver Christian High School. Telephone messages left to relatives were not immediately returned on Wednesday.
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