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Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, a 24-year-old from Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested on Monday, March 31, and charged with attempting to access North Sentinel Island, the report said.
The Sentinelese people are considered the "most isolated Indigenous people on Earth," according to Survival International. They speak an unknown language and have been known to be hostile toward outsiders.
India prohibits anyone from coming within three miles of the island, which is approximately the size of Manhattan and located in the Andaman archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, according to Newsweek.
The Ukrainian-born Polyakov is accused of visiting the island around 1 a.m. on Saturday, March 29, where he stayed for only a few minutes in an attempt to give the Sentinelese a coconut and a Diet Coke as an "offering," the Washington Post reported. Authorities confiscated his footage from his time there.
After returning to his boat, Polyakov reportedly remained nearby, observing the shoreline for about an hour before local fishermen spotted him and alerted authorities, the Post said.
It was his third known attempt to reach the Sentinelese, the report continued.
Polyakov only has about 2,500 subscribers on his YouTube channel, the Neo-Orientalist. He previously released a six-part series featuring his travels through “Taliban-controlled Afghanistan."
India tried to establish contact with the Sentinelese for decades by leaving gifts and other items on the shore. But officials eventually abandoned the effort after realizing the tribe did not welcome a meeting, Newsweek reported.
The Sentinelese killed a 26-year-old American missionary in 2018 after he snuck onto the island in an attempt to convert them to Christianity.
However, the ban on visitors is meant to protect the indigenous tribe as much as it is outsiders.
With no contact with the outside world, the Sentinelese have no immunity or medicine against common diseases.
Polyakov is scheduled to return to court on Thursday, April 17. If found guilty, he faces five years in prison.
Click here to read the ABC News report.
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