Man who visited 'world's most isolated tribe' and left can of Coke explains how it all went wrong
The man who made the treacherous and highly illegal journey to North Sentinel Island has revealed how authorities rumbled him.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov has been reflecting on the perilous voyage he made in March last year that landed him in a lot of legal trouble in a series of videos shared on YouTube.
Sharing footage taken from the small inflatable boat he travelled across the Indian Ocean in, the content creator from the US has now explained why his grand plan to make contact with the 'world’s most isolated tribe' went awry.
Polyakov infamously left a can of Coke behind after making a brief visit to North Sentinel Island and solemnly returning without interacting with the people who call it home.
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After the island was declared a tribal reserve in 1956, it became illegal for anyone to get within three miles of the place - but that hasn't stopped people trying.
Another American, 26-year-old John Allen Chau, didn't make it back alive after heading to North Sentinel in November 2018 in the hopes of converting the people to Christianity.
He is believed to have been killed with arrows by locals after arriving on the protected island. Reports claim his body was buried on the beach, but Indian officials deemed attempts to retrieve his corpse as being too dangerous.
Explaining why leaving the Sentinelese people should be left alone, human rights organisation Survival International explained that they 'have made it clear that they do not want contact'.
It explains that outsiders expose these uncontacted Indigenous people to diseases which they have no immunity to, meaning common ailments could easily wipe them out.
Luckily for Polyakov, he managed to escape with his life after stepping onto North Sentinel Island, which was likely down to him not running into any locals.
He arrived in the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Port Blair, on 27 March and was arrested three days later after he took a boat out to the notorious island.
In footage shared to his YouTube channel in June this year, Polyakov showed his more than 10,000 subscribers the moment that he arrived on North Sentinel.
He confessed that he was 'absolutely sh**ting his pants' and that he was 'expecting something a little more climactic' to happen, but was glad to have arrived on dry land all the same.
Polyakov frolicked across the sand briefly to leave 'footprints that will freak them the f**k out', in his words.
Explaining why he left quite quickly, he told his viewers: "Though I had more stops planned, the slim odds of finding the Aboriginals elsewhere, and the need to return before raising further suspicion left me with little choice."
After climbing back into his small boat, Polyakov recorded footage of himself blowing a whistle in an attempt to gain the attention of the Sentinelese people while yelling towards the shore.
"Grudgingly, I cut my losses and began the long journey back," he told viewers. "Bit anticlimactic, was to be expected. Most expeditions to North Sentinel Island, they never made contact with any sort of natives because either, you know, they didn't find them or they were hiding or so on. But yeah, I think I'm going to have to part ways with North Sentinel Island."
Polyakov then tossed a can of Coke into the water, in the hopes that 'the Sentinelese will find it', before explaining he was 'going to try and get back without raising any sort of suspicion'.
He admitted he had 'some very close calls' en route to the island, adding: "It's very possible I would not have made it in here, that I would have not made it to North Sentinel Island. Instead, I would be languishing in an Indian prison.
"I could still be languishing in an Indian prison...but at least I saw North Sentinel first."
In a voiceover, Polyakov then stated that his 'anxieties about capture' had eased - but what he didn't know was that authorities were already waiting to get hold of him.
"While my journey to the island unfolded, I'd been reported missing, triggering a frantic search effort back on the mainland," he said.
"When I arrived back in my hotel in Kermadera, the police were already waiting for me.
"Though I chose my words carefully, my footage still in my camera told the story I withheld. That night, I was placed under de facto house arrest, with three constables watching me at all times.
"Lying awake with the policemen asleep beside me, I was left wondering what the future would hold. But soon enough, my detention became an arrest."
Topics: World News, US News, Crime, YouTube
Olivia Burke