American YouTuber Arrested After Visiting Remote Island Tribe and Leaving Can of Diet Coke

An American tourist was arrested after allegedly sneaking onto an isolated island in an attempt to meet a remote tribe untouched by the modern world — and leaving a coconut and a can of Diet Coke.  

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, a 24-year-old who has posted travel content on YouTube, snuck onto the restricted territory of North Sentinel Island, a part of India’s Andaman Islands, to try and meet the Sentinelese people, Indian police told CBS. There are believed to be around 150 people on the island. 

No outsiders are allowed to travel within three miles of the island to protect the Sentinelese, an uncontacted indigenous tribe, to preserve their way of life and safeguard them from outside diseases, according to the outlet. 

“The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation,” Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal told AFP.

Dhaliwal told AFP that Polyakov kept blowing a whistle off the shore of North Sentinel Island for about an hour to attract the tribe’s attention.

He spent about five minutes on the island, leaving the Diet Coke and coconut, collecting sand samples, and recording a video before leaving, the chief noted.

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The Sentinelese made headlines seven years ago when they killed John Allen Chau, 27, a U.S. missionary who landed on the island illegally, CBS reported.

Chau’s body was not recovered and there were no investigation into his death because of the Indian law prohibiting anyone from visiting the island. Officials told CBS that he was apparently shot and killed by arrows. 

The charity Survival International called Polyakov’s attempt to visit North Sentinel Island “deeply disturbing.”

“It beggars belief that someone could be that reckless and idiotic. This person’s actions not only endangered his own life, they put the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk,” Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International said in a statement.

“It’s very well known by now that uncontacted peoples have no immunity to common outside diseases like flu or measles, which could completely wipe them out,” Pearce continued.