Why American missionary’s contact with the North Sentinelese may wipe out the Andaman tribe

Updated Nov 27, 2018 | 19:17 IST | Times Now Digital

American missionary John Allen Chau is believed to have been killed by the North Sentinelese tribesmen on November 17 when he landed on the island.

North Sentinel Andamans
Image credit: Survival International / Christian Caron – Creative Commons 

Port Blair: Experts have warned that any attempt to retrieve the body of an American national, killed on the North Sentinel island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands earlier this month, is "incredibly dangerous" for the Neolithic tribe as well as rescuers.

Rights group Survival International said in a statement that Indian officials should, in fact, abandon the efforts to retrieve the body of the US missionary believed to be hidden on a beach.

John Allen Chau is believed to have been killed by the North Sentinelese tribesmen on November 17 when he landed on the island. He had travelled to the island in a bid to convert the protected tribesmen to Christianity.

Efforts so far to recover Chau's body have failed so far as Indian officials have been faced off with the Sentinelese, who were carrying bows and arrows.

“It’s not impossible that the Sentinelese have just been infected by deadly pathogens to which they have no immunity, with the potential to wipe out the entire tribe," Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said.

Explainer: Here’s why North Sentinel Island is off limits for tourists in Andaman - Watch Video

"The Sentinelese have shown again and again that they want to be left alone, and their wishes should be respected. The British colonial occupation of the Andaman Islands decimated the tribes living there, wiping out thousands of tribespeople, and only a fraction of the original population now survive. So the Sentinelese (tribesmen's) fear of outsiders is very understandable," Corry added.

According to him, uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable people on the planet. "Whole populations are being wiped out by diseases like the flu and measles to which they have no resistance," he feared.

Corry lamented the Indian government's move to lift the restrictions that were in place for travelling to protected islands like North Sentinel.

“This tragedy should never have been allowed to happen. The Indian authorities should have been enforcing the protection of the Sentinelese and their island for the safety of both the tribe and the outsiders.

“Instead, a few months ago the authorities lifted one of the restrictions that had been protecting the Sentinelese tribe’s island from foreign tourists, which sent exactly the wrong message, and may have contributed to this terrible event," the official stated.

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