These can only be used in shallow waters as they are steered and propelled with a pole like a punt. Unlike the neighboring Jarawa tribe, they make boats and these are in the form of narrow outrigger canoes. The Sentinelese hunt and gather in the forest, and fish in the coastal waters. Even what they call themselves or their island is unknown, though the neighbouring Onge tribe call North Sentinel ' Chia daaKwokweyeh'. Most of what is known about the Sentinelese has been gathered by viewing them from boats moored more than an arrows distance from the shore and a few brief periods in the past where the Sentinelese allowed the authorities to get close enough to hand over some coconuts. Survival International is the only organization fighting worldwide to stop the extermination of uncontacted tribes like the Sentinelese Please donate today→ North Sentinel Island, home of the Sentinelese, as seen from above. © Survival Neighboring tribes were wiped out after the British colonized their islands, and they lack immunity to common diseases like flu or measles, which would decimate their population. The Sentinelese have made it clear that they do not want contact. Poachers are known to fish illegally in the waters around the island, catching turtles and diving for lobsters and sea cucumbers. In 2006, two Indian fishermen, Sunder Raj and Pandit Tiwari, who had moored their boat near North Sentinel to sleep after poaching in the waters around the island, were killed when their boat broke loose and drifted onto the shore. His illegal attempt at contact could have wiped out the entire tribe through introducing new diseases such as flu to which the Sentinelese have no immunity. In November 2018, John Allen Chau, an American missionary, was killed by members of the Sentinelese tribe while trying to convert them to Christianity.

In the wake of the 2004 tsunami this member of the Sentinelese tribe was photographed firing arrows at a helicopter. © Indian Coastguard/Survival They continue to resist all contact with outsiders, attacking anyone who comes near. They live on their own small forested island called North Sentinel, which is approximately the size of Manhattan, and which is part of an island chain that is also home to another uncontacted tribe, the Shompen.

The Sentinelese are the most isolated tribe in the world. If not, the entire tribe could be wiped out by diseases to which they have no immunity. Survival International lobbies, protests and uses public pressure to ensure their wish to remain uncontacted is respected. They vigorously reject all contact with outsiders. The Sentinelese are an uncontacted tribe living on North Sentinel Island, one of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.

North sentinel island tribe