Those Whose Names We Know Not...

Westward of the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago is the North Sentinel Island. On Google maps it would seem as just another piece of gorgeous sandy beaches with a dense forest in the exotic island-scape of the region. On ground at Port Blair you would realise that you cannot get a boat to go to the island or even in the general direction. Not only can you not get it, you would be punishable by law if you did venture there.

The North Sentinel Island, though legally administered by the Indian Union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the home and domain of one of the last uncontacted tribes of the world - the Sentineles.

We know nothing for certain about the Sentinelese. The earliest information about them comes from an 1880 British expedition and since then there have been limited interaction with them. The tribe is a fierce one and approachers by boat and helicopter have known to be greeted with a curtain of arrows. A National Geographic film director on expedition has had the rare privilege of being stuck in the thigh with a Sentineles arrow. 

In 1996, the Indian government ended the ‘Contact Expeditions’. We don’t know who exactly they are, what their history is, how they got there - not even what they call themselves. On a few sq. kms of land in the middle of the ocean remain approximately 250 individuals from pre-history and amongst the last of the humans not contacted and not wanting to be contacted by modern society.