Indian Police Struggling to Recover American Tourist’s Body on Andaman’s Island

Indian authorities have been mulling over various ways to recover the body of an American tourist, killed by a protected tribe in an isolated island in Andaman.

John Allen Chau, an American tourist was killed on Nov.16 when he entered the isolated and preserved territory of protected North Sentinel tribal people, who shot him down with their arrows. Police said that his body was buried on the beach by the tribals.

The Associated Press reported that even officials don’t go to North Sentinel where the members of this protected tribe have been living for thousands of years. Whenever these tribal people see outsiders, they get suspicious of them and attack them.

AP quoted Dependra Pathak, Director-General of police on Andaman and Nicobar Islands as saying, “It’s a difficult proposition… We have to see what is possible, taking utmost care of the sensitivity of the group and the legal requirements.”

He also said that anthropologists, tribal welfare experts, and scholars are being consulted to find a way to recover the body from the island, whose inhabitants are hostile to outsiders.

In the meantime, officials from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs termed Chau an adventure sports enthusiast who violated the local laws to get into the highly prohibited area, reported the New Indian Express.

The officials also said that Chau violated the laws of the country by not informing the police and not taking permission from the local administration and forest department, added the report.

It is not first time when an outsider had to lose his life in hands of Sentinelese for intruding their protected space. In 2006, the tribals killed two fishermen who were sleeping in their boats.

All visits to the island are heavily restricted by the government as the island is home to not just the tribe, but also to several sensitive defense establishments.