The US tourist arrested for leaving a can of Diet Coke on a remote island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a 24-year-old YouTuber known for his thrill-seeking content.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov travelled for nine hours to reach North Sentinel Island, home to one of the world’s most isolated tribes. To safeguard the Sentinelese people from external diseases and to maintain their way of life, it is forbidden for anyone, Indian or foreign, to travel within three miles (5 km) of the island.
They are known to be hostile towards strangers and have no contact with the outside world. Earlier, people tried to enter the island but were killed by the tribe. The last person to visit the island was an American Christian missionary, John Allen Chau, but he was killed after landing on the island.
Mr Polyakov sneaked onto the island and tried to get the indigenous tribe’s attention by blowing a whistle and leaving a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as tribute.
According to the police, the YouTuber used binoculars to spot the tribe from his boat after reaching the island’s northeastern shore. He tried various ways in the hope of spotting the tribe and getting their attention, but no one appeared.
He waited for an hour before finally giving up and leaving the place after making a video on the beach. The local fishermen saw him upon his return and reported him to the authorities. The video, later recovered by police, captures him exclaiming, “I have landed here. I am a solo traveller. No one has landed here before. This is anti-climactic. No one has done this before.”
This was not the first time he tried his way to reach the Sentinelese tribe. He planned to visit the island in October 2024 but was stopped by the hotel staff before he could leave.
Later, he posted a cryptic image on YouTube that showed a boy moving towards the island, which looked like North Sentinel, on a boat with his dog.
This was not the first time Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov took such a risk. In January, he also visited Baratang Island and recorded another indigenous group called the Jarawa tribe.
Before that, Mr Polyakov visited Afghanistan and met with the Taliban as part of his daredevil adventure. He held and posed with automatic weapons and swords he borrowed from the Islamist fighters.
