Cut off from the world, an Indian island remains a mystery

The Sentinelese are a tiny tribe of hunter-gatherers who reject contact with the outside world.

For thousands of years, the people of North Sentinel island have been isolated from the rest of the world.

They use spears and bows and arrows to hunt the animals that roam the small, heavily forested island, and gather plants to eat and to fashion into homes. Their closest neighbours live more than 50km away. Deeply suspicious of outsiders, they attack anyone who comes through the surf and on to their beaches.

"The Sentinelese want to be left alone," said the anthropologist Anup Kapur.

Scholars believe the Sentinelese migrated from Africa roughly 50,000 years ago, but most details of their lives remain completely unknown.

"We do not even know how many of them are there," said Anvita Abbi, who has spent decades studying the tribal languages of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.

North Sentinel is an outpost of the island chain, which is far closer to Burma and Thailand than to mainland India. Estimates on the group's size range from a few dozen to a few hundred.

"What language they speak, how old it is, it's anybody's guess," Abbi said. "Nobody has access to these people." And, she said, that is how it should be. "Just for our curiosity, why should we disturb a tribe that has sustained itself for tens of thousands of years?" she asked. "So much is lost: People are lost, language is lost, their peace is lost."

For generations, Indian officials have heavily restricted visits to North Sentinel, with contact limited to rare "gift-giving" encounters, with small teams of officials and scientists leaving coconuts and bananas for the islanders.

Any contact with such isolated people can be dangerous, scholars say, with islanders having no resistance to diseases outsiders carry.

"We have become a very dangerous people," said P.C. Joshi, an anthropology professor at Delhi University. "Even minor influences can kill them."

Because of this, Abbi said, scholars who visit isolated peoples are careful to limit their visits to a few hours a day and to stay away even if they have minor coughs or colds.

Many of the island chain's other tribes have been decimated over the past century, lost to disease, intermarriage and migration.

- AP