North Sentinel Island

The Onge, one of the other indigenous peoples of the Andamans, were aware of North Sentinel Island's existence; their traditional name for the island is Chia daaKwokweyeh. Homfray, an administrator, travelled to the island in March 1867. Towards the end of the same year's summer monsoon season, Nineveh, an Indian merchant ship, was wrecked on a reef near the island. The 106 surviving passengers and crewmen landed on the beach in the ship's boat and fended off attacks by the Sentinelese. They were eventually found by a Royal Navy rescue party. The Sentinelese are known to have scavenged both shipwrecks for iron. Settlers from Port Blair also visited the sites to recover the cargo. In 1991, salvage operators were authorised to dismantle the ships. First peaceful contact and members of the contact expedition team interacting with the Sentinelese people by offering coconuts The first peaceful contact with the Sentinelese was made by Triloknath Pandit, a director of the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI), and his colleagues on 4 January 1991. Among the team was Madhumala Chattopadhyay, the first female anthropologist to make contact with the tribe. During the encounter, Chattopadhyay called out to the islanders using tribal words she had learned from other Andamanese groups, inviting them to collect the coconuts. Although a young tribesman initially aimed a bow at the researchers, he lowered his weapon after being nudged by a woman on the shore, and the islanders began accepting coconuts directly from the researchers. On these gift dropping missions, he and his team exchanged bananas and coconuts with the Sentinelese people. Despite having no common language the groups communicated and planted coconut saplings together. The expeditions stopped due to ethical concerns for the cultural and physical well being of the tribespeople, as well as changes in Indian government policies. Indian Ocean earthquake and later hostile contacts The Sentinelese survived the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and its after-effects, including the tsunami and the uplifting of the island. Three days after the earthquake, an Indian government helicopter observed several islanders, who shot arrows and threw spears and stones at the helicopter. Although the tsunami disturbed the tribal fishing grounds, the Sentinelese appear to have adapted. In November 2018, a 26-year-old American Christian missionary named John Allen Chau, who was trained and sent by Missouri-based All Nations, was killed during an illegal trip to the restricted island where he planned to preach Christianity to the Sentinelese. The 2023 documentary film The Mission discusses the incident. Seven individuals were taken into custody by Indian police on suspicion of abetting Chau's illegal access to the island. Despite efforts by Indian authorities, which involved a tense encounter with the tribe, Chau's body was not recovered. In December 2022, three fishermen were found missing after a fishing trip. Their boat has been spotted on North Sentinel Island by the local fishermen and the A&N administration, leading to the possibility of them either being stranded on the island or killed by the “Sentinelese” tribe. In March 2025, another US citizen made an unauthorised landing on the island. He illegally left behind Diet Coke and coconuts, collected sand samples and recorded a video before returning. He was subsequently arrested by the Indian Police Service and presented before the local court. Following his arrest, he referred to himself as a "thrill seeker". Police have claimed that he attempted to conduct reconnaissance of North Sentinel Island in October 2024, and that he had explored other archipelago islands in January 2025 where he illegally recorded video footage of members of the protected Jarawa tribe. ==Geography==

North Sentinel lies west of the village of Wandoor in South Andaman Island, west of Port Blair, and north of its counterpart South Sentinel Island. It has an area of about and a roughly square outline. There is a narrow, white-sand beach encircling the island, behind which the ground rises , and then gradually to between near the centre. Reefs extend around the island to between from the shore. ==Flora and fauna==

The island is largely covered in tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest. Due to the lack of surveys, the exact composition of the terrestrial flora and fauna remains unknown. In his 1880 expedition to the island, Maurice Vidal Portman reported an open, "park-like" jungle with numerous groves of bulletwood (Manilkara littoralis) trees, as well as huge, buttressed specimens of Malabar silk-cotton tree (Bombax ceiba). The IUCN Red List lists North Sentinel as being an important habitat for coconut crabs (Birgus latro), which have been otherwise extirpated from most of the other Andaman Islands except from South Sentinel and Little Andaman. North Sentinel Island, along with South Sentinel, is also considered a globally Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International, as despite the lack of surveys, the pristine habitat likely supports a diversity of birdlife. The marine ecosystem surrounding the island remains poorly surveyed. A substantial coral reef is known to encircle the island, and mangroves are present along its shores. A report by divers indicated that the reefs experienced significant bleaching during the 1998 El Niño, but have since shown evidence of coral regeneration. Sightings of sharks have also been reported in the surrounding waters. Sea turtles are believed to inhabit the area, as noted by Portman, who described them as an important food source for the Sentinelese; one individual was observed during the 1999 survey. Dolphins were also recorded during the same expedition. ==Demographics==

North Sentinel Island is inhabited by the Sentinelese, indigenous people who defend their voluntary isolation by force. Their population was estimated to be between 50 and 400 people in a 2012 report. in 10 households, but that too was merely an estimate, described as a "wild guess" by The Times of India. Like the Jarawas whose numbers have been decreasing, the Sentinelese population would face the potential threats of infectious diseases to which they have no immunity, as well as violence from intruders. The Indian government has declared the entire island and its surrounding waters extending from the island to be an exclusion zone to protect them from outside interference. ==Political status==

The Andaman and Nicobar (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 provides protection to the Sentinelese and other native tribes in the region. The Andaman and Nicobar Administration stated in 2005 that they have no intention to interfere with the lifestyle or habitat of the Sentinelese and are not interested in pursuing any further contact with them or governing the island. Although North Sentinel Island is not legally an autonomous administrative division of India, scholars have referred to it and its people as effectively autonomous, or de facto sovereign. ==Notes==