27-year-old John Allen Chau, an American man, failed to reach the Sentinelese tribe in Andaman and Nicobar island, on his first attempt. However, he was determined to make it to the protected tribes, who survived the devastating Tsunami in 2004 without the help of the outside world. Therefore, John made a prepared second effort which turned out to be fatal.
According to NDTV, John was killed by a whirlwind of arrows shot towards him by the Sentinelese people on November 16. According to the fishermen who were live witnesses of the murder, the tribe dragged John’s body with a rope and left him half-buried into the sand. According to a source,
“He tried to reach the Sentinel island on November 14 but could not make it. Two days later he went well prepared. He left the dingy midway and took a canoe all by himself to the island.”
However, the American had a mission behind his attempts to reach the dangerous tribal group. According to India Today, John was a missionary who wanted to convert the Sentinelese into Christianity. This was his sixth visit to the Andaman and Nicobar islands and he was hell-bent towards meeting them and preaching Christianity.
In fact, John was so desperate to enter their homeland that he paid Rs 25,000 to the local fishermen to help him bypass the inspecting teams of policemen, Coast Guard, and Navy.
On reaching Port Blair, the fishermen informed about John’s death to Alex, a local preacher who also happened to be the victim’s friend. Alex immediately notified John’s family in the US of the unfortunate incident. The fishermen have been arrested by the police in the islands while Alex was questioned thoroughly. Speaking about the same, Dependra Pathak, DGP, Andaman and Nicobar Police, said,
“They started on November 14 around 8 PM for the North Sentinel Island and reached there by midnight. The next day, Chau moved to shore using his kayak which he got towed with the fishing boat. After dropping him the fishermen fixed their timings and place to meet each other between the shoreline and their high sea fishing area.”
As per reports in 2011, the Sentinelese tribe was estimated to be 40 in numbers. However, according to experts, their number can be anywhere between 40 to 400 at the moment.