Many people are working hard to learn more about our world.
When I say working hard, I mean that people would climb mountains, dive to the ocean depths,
and trek through impenetrable jungles just to get a glimpse of this secretive world’s
places.
Because of people’s efforts, it might be easy to believe that Earth’s mysteries will
totally be discovered by the twenty-first century.
However, this is not the case.
Many areas on our planet have yet to be investigated.
And today, you're on your way to North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal, which is one
of the world's most mysterious places.
Even if I wanted to say, "Sit back and relax," this is not going to be a simple ride.
In this video, you’ll know the secret of an isolated island in the Indian Ocean.
You’re also going to meet one of the world's most mysterious tribes and what it takes to
learn about them.
But I guess you won’t be interested in going there and meeting them.
Why?
Well, let’s get this started for you to know the answer.
Let's start with some background information on North Sentinel Island.
The Indian Ocean is home to many islands, including North Sentinel Island.
The island covers roughly 60 square kilometers or 23 square miles, thus it isn't a vast area.
This island, however, is not accessible to the general public.
Tourists, residents of surrounding islands, and even scientists are not permitted to enter
the island.
So, why is this place so popular if it's not open to anyone?
If you're thinking it's because of venomous spiders or snakes, or because of some ancient
curse as an answer to the question, you're mistaken.
It’s the mysterious people who live on this island that have made it famous.
There are 15 to 400 individuals living on a little area of land on the island, and this
number couldn’t be confirmed since no one can visit the island.
Because of that, there’s no one to count the individuals or keep track of anything
they have there.
Moreover, people living there most likely don’t have any idea how to read and write.
Scientists can only make theories from what they have observed from afar.
Of course, if they truly want to study them, modern technology can help them, such as viewing
them through satellite photographs.
The island, on the other hand, will not allow it.
Dense trees surround the entire island, so it would still be hard for them to see anything
through the large vegetation on the island, except the shore.
Because of this, it’s safe to say that anything could be hidden there.
I mean, who knows if there are living dinosaurs, traces of an alien culture, or perhaps the
lost city of Atlantis beneath the surface?
That would be really interesting, right?
The people that reside inside North Sentinel Island are called the Sentinelese, and I understand
if you know little to nothing about these people.
They are one of the Andaman's indigenous peoples who rely on themselves.
According to scientists, since the dawn of time, the sentinel people have lived in almost
perfect solitude, and that would be about the past 60000 years.
They've been developing and progressing on their own for all of this time.
They literally are the people who have never seen what it’s like to be in this world.
Because of this, these people might be ignorant about bitcoin, global warming, or Netflix.
Some researchers have managed to get a glimpse of the locals, who are described as being
roughly 165 centimeters or five and a half feet tall.
The reason behind this height may be due to island dwarfism.
Apart from that, residents have a dark, lustrous complexion, good teeth, and muscular bodies.
Despite technological developments and changes in people's lifestyles over time, sentinel
people still hunt and gather to survive.
When hunting on land, they utilize bows, arrows, and spears, but when hunting on water, such
as with crabs and shellfish, they use their bare hands.
Their settlements are littered with shattered shells as a result.
They continue to practice the ancient practices to this day.
Sentinels are unlikely to know what farming is, but they are skilled at making canoes.
However, even if the fire appears to be present on the island, it is unclear whether the locals
know how to make a fire.
Sentinels live in improvised shelters, adore metal music, and speak a language that is
unfamiliar to us.
Well, it’s truly a unique civilization located on a unique island.
Isn’t that incredible?
Scientists would do anything to discover more about the local tribe.
Visiting them, however, is prohibited by the government, not by the islanders themselves.
Although there is no agreement between the natives and the government, India officially
administers North Sentinel Island, so the Indian authorities ensure that the sentinels
are not harmed and disturbed.
The tribe's weak immune systems are the main reason for their isolation.
They didn't seem to be able to develop immunity to common diseases after living for thousands
of years without contact with humans outside the island.
In fact, interacting with someone from the outside even for a short period of time could
result in tragedy, and since they follow primitive culture, sickness spreads quickly.
The sentinels are in danger of dying in order for humans to learn more about them, and these
aren't just speculations.
Maurice Vidal Portman, a British officer in the nineteenth century, had once investigated
the island's natives.
Unfortunately, his research isn’t ethical.
Portman abducted six sentinels and transported them to a big city nearby.
All six sentinel people grew ill, and two of them, both adults, died.
Only four children, all of whom are sick, were returned to the island by Portman, who
then left them on the island without treating them in their illness.
Fortunately, the tribe survived despite what happened.
Since then, the island has been safeguarded against diseases that may come from the outside.
Indian border patrol boats monitor the coastal waters regularly to make sure that no one
is trying to get into the island.
You may only get within nine kilometers or five nautical miles of the island.
Anything close that distance is considered a restricted zone.
North Sentinel Island is classified as a rare treasure, and this may be due to the fact
that non-contact peoples such as the Sentinelese are becoming increasingly rare.
The islanders, on the other hand, learned to fight for themselves through time.
They also do it most of the time.
They try their best in avoiding people from outside the island.
Moreover, they would even respond aggressively to strangers.
Yes, they are aggressive that they can kill any outsider, even if they aren't in any danger.
Fairly, there have been peaceful interactions between the locals and the outside, the first
interaction occurred in 1991, but visits to the island ended in 1997.
People used to be so eager to visit the island, but now they would choose to avoid contacting
the sentinels at all.
Following an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004, the Indian government dispatched
a helicopter to the island to see what happened to the locals.
The earthquake killed over 200 thousand people outside the island, so the government thought
that the sentinels might also be destroyed.
Luckily, the locals managed to survive, though it's unclear how they were able to do it.
However, the earthquakes destroyed the coral reef where they gather their food, but the
islanders were able to adapt.
They weren't happy, though, with the helicopters flying around the island, so they threw stones,
spears, as well as shooting arrows at it.
It was as if making a statement that they were fine.
Scientists believe the sentinels' hostility is a reflection of the community's physical
and cultural stability, not just a desire to shoot down a helicopter.
There are still people who are interested in North Sentinel Island despite official
bans and life-threatening risks.
This includes the Indian fisherman who took crabs near the banned island on January 27,
2006.
As their boat drifted into shallow water, nearby vessels had warned them, but they ignored
it.
These fishermen, however, never returned home.
Sentinel soldiers destroyed their boats and killed them.
An Indian coast guard helicopter flew to the island three days later to recover the bodies
of the fishermen, however, the sentinels confronted it with spears and arrows.
Because of the local’s aggressiveness, they weren’t able to retrieve the bodies.
They can only think that the fishermen were buried by the sentinels.
Almost anything that reaches North Sentinel Island vanishes completely.
The tragedy of these fishermen happened again in 2018.
The missionary John Allen Chau hired two fishermen, paying them about thirty thousand dollars
just to escort him to the island.
Chau tried to communicate with the natives multiple times in a peaceful manner, but it
all ended in a tragedy.
The sentinels killed him using bows and arrows.
Later, the fisherman who helped him to get into the island was arrested by the government.
The body of Chau was never retrieved and remained on North Sentinel Island.
And maybe, was buried by locals.
North Sentinel Island is still one of the least studied places on Earth.
We can only make wild guesses on what lies beneath its woodlands and what is truly buried
by a tribe living in it that is chained by its ancient practices.
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