North Sentinel Island – A Place No One Is Allowed to Visit
On the surface, North Sentinel looks like your typical small island. Being roughly the size of Manhattan, it lies in the Bay of Bengal, more or less surrounded by larger landmasses. The country its closest to is Burma. But officially, North Sentinel Island is a protected area under India.
That strict status is part of what makes the island unique. Beyond that, its residents, the Sentinelese, have yet to make consistent contact with the modern world, and they’re known to be notoriously hostile towards outsiders who venture into their territory.
An aerial image of North Sentinel Island, which is roughly the size of NYC’s Manhattan, captured in 2023.
‘THE MOST ISOLATED PEOPLE ON EARTH’
By this point in history, it’s very rare that you hear of an uncontacted people. Out of the estimated 8 billion of human beings populating the globe, only about 10,000 of us are uncontacted. As for the Sentinelese, who have become the most popular of such people, it is believed that their population only numbers a couple hundred, at most.
Uncontacted people have very limited exchange with the outside world. They usually make no attempt to, and it’s rather outsiders who try to assimilate them. So they still live in a primitive state, without the basic amenities of modernity.
INDIA’S ROLE IN KEEPING NORTH SENTINEL ISLAND ISOLATED
Being on a remote island in and of itself is not going to prevent outside contact. And that’s where India comes into play with the Sentinelese.
The inhabitants of North Sentinel have opted to remain isolated. So almost invariably, they attack outsiders who get close to the island.
There’s a popular picture of the Sentinelese circulating online. It was apparently taken from the boat. And as you can see, even in that still, the native men appear to be quite upset, as if they’re on the verge of attacking the cameraman with arrows.
This is the extremely rare picture of the Sentinelese people in question.
The Indian government has respected these wishes and went as far as to institute a law that no one can travel to island. Even nearby boats can’t get any closer than three miles or five kilometers.
But this isn’t solely about respecting the Sentinelese right to extreme privacy. North Sentinel being a protected area of India means that the Indian government is dedicated to preserving the island and its people.
For instance, not having established contact with the outside world probably means the natives lack immunity to common diseases. So if someone haphazardly visits the island, an infection can spread that can quickly kill off the population.
Something like that almost happened before, when the British decided to set up shop in the mid-19th century. And the international community seems more or less in congruence with India’s decision to preserve not only the land and health of the Sentinelese but also their rare indigenous culture.
SENTINELESE CATCHING BODIES
And these efforts aren’t solely about protecting the Sentinelese from outsiders. The islanders are infamous for being hostile, deadly even, towards outsiders.
Despite it being a protected area and its inhabitants fiercely isolationist, people still venture to North Sentinel Island from time-to-time. And in some instance the outcome has been tragic – for them, not the islanders.
For instance in 2006, a couple of Indian fisherman sailed too close to the island, perhaps unintentionally. They were summarily dealt with by the inhabitants. And when Indian authorities tried to recover the victims’ bodies from the island, they were greeted with arrows.
That wasn’t surprising, since that’s how the islanders have communicated with outsiders going back centuries. And they were never charged with any crime for killing those two fisherman.
A more infamous case occurred when a 26 year-old Christian missionary decided to take the gospel to North Sentinel in 2018. His name was John Chau, an American with impressive international experience. He went to the island’s territory illegally, without official authorization or protection, on at least three occasions.
American missionary John Chau lost his life in an attempt to Christianize the Senegalese. His death brought mixed reactions from the international community.
During his last visit, Chau asked the fishermen to smuggle him onto North Sentinel and leave him there. He was willing to put his life on the line for his calling and ended up paying the ultimate price.
The last anyone saw of John – or his body at least, was it being dragged and buried in the sand by the Sentinelese. He was killed by arrow. And once again, the Sentinelese didn’t get into any trouble. Rather, it was the men accused of assisting John in getting to the island who ended up in hot water.
Chau didn’t receive much love from the global community either. People largely criticized his decision to illegally venture to the island without seriously considering the risks, such as the possibility of him spreading deadly pathogens.
INDIA TRIES TO MAKE PEACE
The first time anyone peacefully visited the island is considered to have been as recently as 1991. This is despite the fact that there have been documented trips onto or around North Sentinel dating back to the late 19th century.
Indian government anthropologists make ‘the first peaceful contact’ with the Sentinelese in 1991.
That 1991 trip was spearheaded by Indian government anthropologists. And even though the Sentinelese didn’t shot arrows at them, as they sometimes do when govvie shows up, they did warn them against staying on the island too long.
Later down the line, in 2025, an American YouTuber visited the island, lived to tell the tale and even made videos about it. He also left gifts for the Sentinelese, with the trip and all being illegal.
But those types of tales, of outsiders peacefully interacting or trading with the islanders, are an anomaly, not the norm. Indeed, the Indian government itself stopped making visits in 1997.
CONCLUSION
National Geographic has described the Sentinelese as a people who have “chos(en) to live in isolation, but the world won’t leave them alone”. It’s understandable, as “the most isolated people in the world”, why they attract so much attention, as news of their existence spreads. And the story of North Sentinel Island is made more intriguing by its inhabitants fearless and consistent defense against outsiders despite not owning guns or other modern weapons. But buttressed by the Indian government, even as we head into mid-21st century, North Sentinel Island may be on the map, but it remains illegal for outsiders to go there.
