TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - From above, it looks like a beautiful, touristic island, with wonderful beach and thick forest. But no tourist or fisherman dare to land on the island that is located in the Bay of Bengal, India, because of its scary reputation.
People who try to enter or approach the island, named North Sentinel Island, are exposed to risk of being attacked by mysterious indigenous tribe. The tribe reject modern civilization and choose to be completely disconnected from outside world for around 600 thousand years.
Their relationship with the outsiders usually involve violences. Sentinel tribe had killed two fishermen who fell asleep on their boats that floated around the island in 2006. They also launched arrows and threw stones to airplane or helicopter that flew low in an identification mission.
The tribe, which also known as the “Stone Age Tribe”, is among the most isolated tribes in the world. To protect both the tribe and travelers, the Government of India have determined probitied zone of 5 kilometers from the island. The Indian government had attempted to contact the tribe for several times but failed.
Survival International, an organization that defend rights of indigenous people, said that the tribe is in good health but their waters where they collect food is threatened. Fishermen from nearby islands start to aim for tehir water. Besides, they also prone to disease because they have never went through immunization.
The organization estimated the number of the tribe is between 50 and 200 people. A rescue team for sinking boat had killed many of the tribe members in late 1980s to early 1990s.
“The Great Andamanese tribes of India’s Andaman Islands were decimated by disease when the British colonised the islands in the 1800s,” said Stephen Corry, the Director of Survival International as quoted by Mail Online on Thursday, April 23.
“The most recent to be pushed into extinction was the Bo tribe, whose last member died only four years ago. The only way the Andamanese authorities can prevent the annihilation of another tribe is to ensure North Sentinel Island is protected from outsiders.”
MAIL ONLINE | IWANK
