r/NorthSentinalIsland

This happened in March though my Google search showed it as 4 days old. The article text is here in case the link doesn't work:

"Staff Correspondent
Sri Vijaya Puram, Mar. 05: Two fishermen were reportedly found fishing near the restricted waters of North Sentinel Island, which falls under a protected tribal reserve area, during an early morning patrol on last Saturday.
According to a statement given by Head Constable R.A. Swinli (43), who is posted with the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRBn) and serving as Personal Security Officer (PSO) to the DIGP (Law and Order), the incident occurred on March 1 at around 5:45 a.m.
The police team, along with the DIGP (Law and Order) and other senior officers, was on a circumnavigation duty around North Sentinel Island. They were travelling on a private fishing boat when they noticed a small fishing dinghy anchored in the sea at a distance of about 100 to 200 meters from the island. Two persons were seen fishing close to the island.
When questioned, the two individuals identified themselves as Mahesh Mundari and Ravi Ram Naskar, both residents of Wandoor. They also informed the team that the dinghy they were using belonged to a resident of Wandoor.
The police team informed the fishermen that the area around North Sentinel Island is a notified tribal reserve and that fishing or entering the area is strictly prohibited. The fishermen were asked to leave the area immediately.
However, the fishermen reportedly responded that they would leave after having tea.
Authorities have stated that since the fishermen had entered the restricted tribal reserve area and were fishing near the island, the act constitutes a violation of the law. According to sources both were later arrested for this offence and were later released on bail. Further investigations are on."

https://andamansheekha.com/152806/

March is dry season there, with safer weather conditions. Wandoor is the nearest fishing village to North Sentinel and their fisherman seem to be regular trespassers. Given they fish at night and how close they go to the beach it's a matter of time until there's another accidental grounding followed by confrontation.

I just fail to understand how they maintained so minimal contact with the outside world for thousands of years and stayed primitive. It just doesn't align with how human societies are expected to behave and even in pre-historic times primitive humans kept migrating and moving around to other locations for various reasons, food, meeting other peoples, discovery or sheer curiosity. In fact, the only thing that kept humans in place was some degree of civilization and advancement. Primitive humans are supposed to move around as nomads, the same way animals do.

I just think something's off here. Their island is not so far off the other islands or the mainland where they could be exposed to some civilization. They are supposed to KNOW that other peoples exist too, and other places too, since they got visitors from time to time. Do they not want to discover what is the source of some different people coming in and in big ships? Why do they seclude? It just doesn't make sense to me.

I'd suggest that there could be some sort of a deeply ingrained belief in their culture or religion of some sort, that leaving the island would curse them, so they are not permitted to, and maybe the big chefs do not allow anyone to leave as they are strictly obedient to these beliefs and all.

I'm just wondering the psychological aspect of this. "They want to be alone" is not the answer as we know from history that humans moved a lot even when they were primitive. I'm just contemplating on why they are not curious, not want to discover other places, or just do not want to migrate.

This is all theoretical but I just wanted to bounce a totally hypothetical idea off the group. My experiment would work as follows.

I arrive on the beach at dawn riding one of those jet ski rocket pack things. I ignite a hail of impressive fireworks and smoke grenades. My hope would be to awe the islanders in to believing I am a god of some sort.

of course, I may be met with arrows and spears, so I will be wearing a full Kevlar suit and helmet so their primitive arrows just bounce off. In the confusion, my retinue of about 6 guys arrive on jet skis, in similar Kevlar armor.

I will have prepared (with the help of expert linguists, anthropologists, and other assorted egg heads) a series of pictograms, indicated I wish to challenge their leader (or a proxy) to one on one combat.

Once agreed, I will use my advanced martial arts skills to thoroughly wallop their strongest warrior. If he is better at combat than I expected, my suit is equipped with hidden knuckle dusters, blinding lights, bear spray, and maybe a taser or similar.

Make no mistake, I have no intention to seriously hurt the chief, but I believe a brief walloping will make it clear to the entire population that I’m operating on a different plane of existence.

After I’ve stomped the chief, I can impressive the villagers further if need be. (more fireworks, maybe an iPad, or get them drunk)

Once I’m in charge, I can learn about their culture, and maybe even found out the details of any treasure they hold.

Some things to consider: maybe they don’t have a concept of one on one combat. if that’s the case, my entourage will have to hold the other warriors at bay. I’m thinking bull whips and tear gas will do the trick. Again, the goal isn’t to harm the locals, just impress them and dole out light punishment as necessary for insubordination.

You may wonder about the ethics of this experiment, which is why I’ll employ a team of physicians to make sure everyone going a shore is healthy.

Thoughts? There are some minor details to work out, but I believe the wealth of knowledge obtained from this venture will be worth far more than the monetary cost, which will be high. This is especially true if treasure is found.

​

I'm not saying that would necessarily have been the right course of action. But after the 1991 coconut exchanges, it seemed like the Sentinelese might have been starting to open up. They clearly weren't ready for people to come onto the island, but during those encounters they were relatively peaceful.

Do you think that, if those cautious interactions had continued over many years, the Sentinelese might have become more comfortable with the anthropologists? Could that have eventually allowed scientists to learn more about their language, culture, and way of life?

I know there were times when the Sentinelese were peaceful and other times when they were hostile. It seems that a very cautious approach centered on occasional gift giving from a safe distance might have offered the best chance of gradually building trust.

Literally half the comments are just "leave them alone," "they don't need us," or people playing the ethics card about how we shouldn't even want to study them.

Honestly, it makes no sense. If nobody can go near the place, what are we even supposed to post? A 10-second clip of a plane flyover? Some pixelated Google Earth screenshot where everyone tries to guess if a blur is a tree or a person?

The Indian government keeps the whole island on total lockdown with navy patrols, so no one is getting actual data anyway. They're never going to allow drones over the island either. The absolute maximum we'll ever hear about them is if another John Allen Chau situation happens and someone gets killed trying to land there.

Otherwise, this whole sub is just destined to be wild speculation, recycled theories, and the same tired moral arguments over and over again. Discussing a place we’ll never actually see or understand just feels completely pointless.