North Sentinel Island

Islands are landmasses surrounded by the sea in all directions. In comparison to landlocked countries, islands have more natural resources as well.

Today most islands are inhabited and have link with the outside world and are very popular tourist destinations, but there are still countless small uninhabited islands rising above the surface of the water everyday due to volcanic effects and earthquakes beneath the sea.

Throughout history, various islands around the world have been exploited and plundered for their rich resources. Islands are essential for a geographical balance in the world. Islands are home to one tenth of the world's population and are uniformly rich in bio-diversity. Islands also help to contain the spread of diseases. Islands also play a huge part in maintaining traditions and cultures without external influence. Although many islands have become part of the major world due to prior colonization and technological progress, there are still some islands cut off from the outside world.

One such island lies in the Indian Ocean within the reaches of the Bay of Bengal, close to the Andaman and Nicobar islands. It is claimed to be the only place on Earth that has been untouched by other parts of the global network and remains isolated and untrespassed as ever.

The inhabitants of the North Sentinel Island have refrained from any sort of contact. History proves that this island has been active for over 60,000 years and yet the details regarding this island are very scarce. One of the few accounts regarding this island say that when Marco Polo once passed through this area he quoted the Andamanese are a “brutish and savage race having heads, eyes and teeth like those of dogs.” He has also said that they are very cruel, and kill and eat every foreign who they can lay their hands on.

A second encounter in history is noted to have occurred in 1771, when the island was specifically mentioned by the logs of a vessel of the East Indian Trading Company that had noticed fire lights on its shores.

Again in 1867, an Indian ship called the Ninevah was wrecked on its shore and its 106 survivors had been attacked by the natives before a Royal Navy steamer had rescued them from the formidable islanders.

After a period of a hundred years, when most of the Andaman tribes were beginning to accept modernized culture, a group of anthropologists, a film crew, a National Geographic photographer and a group of armed policemen landed on this island in 1974. Unfortunately, their contact with the Sentinelese was a failure. A group of natives brandishing bows and arrows had come firing upon them. The injured crew had hastily fled to the dinghy that had brought them to the shore to see the islanders bury the gifts they had brought for them in the sand.

Another ship in 1981, the Primrose had washed ashore due to a rogue storm. A few days later the captain had dispatched a message stating that small black men carrying spears and arrows were building rafts to reach the ship. Unfortunately, rescue could not immediately reach them due to the prevailing storm. But after a week a helicopter from the Indian Oil and Natural Gas Commission had rescued the survivors.

So far only one successful expedition has been made to the island. But even so the expediter anthropologist Trilokanth Pandit has only learned so much about the Sentinelese even after dedicated his entire lifetime to study about them.

The seventy-two square kilometre piece of land consists of only 50 to 400 estimated population. There is absolutely no information about their culture or lifestyle. A study in their diet shoes that they mainly eat coconuts as well as the fish and turtles they find in the shallow areas of the sea. They also eat birds. A geographical study of the island shows that agriculture has not yet been introduced or they just choose to ignore agricultural benefits wishing to remain as they are forever.

It is also argued that hostility towards outsiders has saved them from extinction over the years. A sort of survival mechanism. But there are some debates over the other possible mysteries they might be hiding from the outside world.

A remarkable incident occurred during the tsunami of 2004. The disaster had swept away most of the population of the Andaman Islands and the Indian government feared that it had also done serious damage to the Sentinelese. But what they saw when the tsunami receded was that the entire population of the Island had moved to higher ground almost as if they knew that the tsunami was going to come.

The debate remains. Who are these people? Why do they prefer isolation even after so many years and seeing the world change around them? Why are they so stubborn to change? Nobody has found definite answers.

But one thing to realize is that these people are breathing reflections of our own history. They are live representations of our own past. That is why they are important to us. They are our lost heritage. The government of India has wisely banned further expeditions to the island in order to preserve the inhabitants. It has put air and sea territories so as not to disturb these unknown people. Because they are now more important to us than ever before. And there is still a lot for us to learn about us from them.

This article was written by Sulakshi Hettiarachchi

Cover image source: https://fellowprimo.com/north-sentinental-island/