A YouTuber was arrested by Indian authorities after sneaking onto North Sentinel Island in an attempt to reach an uncontacted tribe, bringing offerings of a coconut and a can of Diet Coke.
24-year-old Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov is a small-time content creator with a focus on traveling to high-risk areas of the world, having previously uploaded a series of videos journeying through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Boasting only 867 subscribers, Polyakov had been attempting to reach North Sentinel Island for several months, with his first reported attempt taking place in October 2024.
North Sentinel Island is located in the Bay of Bengal between India and Thailand. It is famously home to the Sentinelese, an uncontacted tribe who are notoriously hostile to any attempted communication from the outside world.
The Sentinalese tribe are an uncontacted society of people under the protection of the Indian government.
They have been left alone to preserve their way of life, and the island is even manned with a guarded patrol by the Indian government — but that hasn’t stopped some ambitious travelers from trying to sneak in, anyway.
YouTuber arrested after setting foot on North Sentinel Island
Polyakov is one of these travelers, who visited the island on Saturday, March 29. After blowing a whistle off shore to get the tribe’s attention, he waded on land and left his offerings, took a sample of sand from the beach, and recorded a video before hopping back onto the boat he’d used to get there.
YouTube: Neo-OrientalistMykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov is known for traveling to high-risk regions of the world, such as his video series visiting Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, pictured here.
The YouTuber was arrested two days later on Monday, March 31, with Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal offering more insights into the legal action being taken against him.
“The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation,” Dhaliwal said.
“He landed briefly for about five minutes, left the offerings on the shore, collected sand samples, and recorded a video before returning to his boat. A review of his GoPro camera footage showed his entry and landing into the restricted North Sentinel Island.”
Wikimedia Commons: NASA Earth ObservatoryNorth Sentinel Island is a restricted area, boasting armed patrols in an effort to stop outsiders from contacting the island’s indigenous tribes.
Polyakov had also tried to get on the island in January 2025, but was unsuccessful. It’s lucky that he’s alive, though, considering that 27-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was reportedly killed by the Sentinelese in 2018 after illegally setting foot on the island.
Polyakov is far from the only influencer to have tried their hand at contacting a remote tribe; in 2024, YouTube group The Nelk Boys supposedly interacted with one such tribe, but quickly came under fire for offering them vapes and liquor.
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