Study details American tourist's journey while visiting India's Sentinelese tribe, one of the world's last uncontacted people

• A study revealed unknown facts about the death of the american tourist who visited one of the India's most isolated tribe.
• The tribe, which has a small population of under 50, lives on the North Sentinel Island of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• The journal highly recommends preserving the diary of Chau, as it contains his experiences and sketches of the hut.

The Anthropological Survey of India published a research journal, highlighting many unknown facts about the alleged killing of an American tourist by a remote tribe of North Sentinel Island in India, reported the Hindu.

“The tragic death of John Allen Chau is a matter of grief, but what is equally distressing is the report that the Andaman police have registered a criminal case for murder against the unknown tribesmen,” said M Sasikumar, Deputy director, Anthrolopogy Survey of India.

An American tourist who came to preach was murdered with bows and arrows

Nine months ago, an American tourist, John Allen Chau, was allegedly killed by the Sentinelese tribe on November, 2018.

Local police charged India's remote indigenous tribe for the murder of the American tourist

The tribe, which has a small population of under 50, lives on the North Sentinel Island of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The tribe is one of India’s protected tribes and is said to resist contact with outsiders.

As a protected island, even the Indian Navy isn’t allowed to interact with its inhabitants. Andaman and Nicobar islands are home to several protected tribes.

The study recommends preserving Chau's journal

Chau’s extreme obsession led him to visit the island even when he was aware of the consequences, the study said.

Most of the previous visits to the island included observation from a distance. Chau was the only one who spent the whole day with the tribal people with close proximity, Dr. Srivastava, Director, ANsI pointed.

The journal highly recommends preserving the diary of Chau, as it contains his experiences and sketches of the hut.

“Well I have been shot by the Sentinelese... By a kid probably 10 or so years old, may be a teenager, short compared to those who looked like adults… The little kid shot me with an arrow directly into my Bible which I was holding at my chest... His high pitched voice still lingers in my head,” Chau’s diary said.

“I don't want to die. Would it be wiser to leave and let someone else to continue? No I don’t think so,” Chau said in his journal.

There are several incidents of murder reported

The journal reports many similar incidents in the Island. In March 1896, three convicts tried escaping to the remote area using a raft of bamboos. While the two drowned, tribals killed the third one.

Similarly, the tribe also allegedly killed two fishermen in 2006 when they were found stealing a mud crab in the area. All the efforts by the local authorities to contact them were in vain. The tribe also killed and buried the pigs, and a doll offered to them, the journal said.

However, Triloknath Pandit was the first and among the very few anthropologists to enter the protected area in 1967.

See also:
American tourist allegedly killed by a remote indigenous tribe on India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands that had little contact with the outside world