Struggle to recover man's body killed by Indian tribe on remote island
Indian authorities are struggling to recover the body of an American man who was killed with arrows on a remote island.
John Allen Chau was killed last week by North Sentinel islanders who apparently shot him with arrows and then buried his body on the beach, police say. He was reportedly trying to convert the islanders to Christianity.
But even officials don’t travel to North Sentinel, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, and where outsiders are seen with suspicion and attacked.
Dependera Pathak, a director-general of police for the area including the island where Mr Chau was killed, said recovering the body is proving to be a “difficult proposition”.
“We have to see what is possible, taking utmost care of the sensitivity of the group and the legal requirements,” he said.
He added police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body.
While visits to the island are heavily restricted, Mr Chau paid fishermen last week to take him near North Sentinel, using a kayak to paddle to shore and bringing gifts including a football and fish.
A ‘foolish’ trip
Delhi University anthropology professor PC Joshi said the visit to the island was a “foolish adventure”.
“He invited that aggression,” Professor Joshi.
Professor Joshi noted that the visit not only risked Chau’s life, but also the lives of islanders who have little resistance to many diseases.
“They are not immune to anything. A simple thing like flu can kill them,” he said.
On his first day Mr Chau interacted with some tribesmen, who survive by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants, until they became angry and shot an arrow at him.
The 26-year-old self-styled adventurer and Christian missionary then swam back to the fishermen’s boat waiting at a safe distance.
That night, he wrote about his visit and left his notes with the fishermen. He returned to North Sentinel the next day, November 16.
What happened then isn’t known, but on the morning of the following day, the fishermen watched from the boat as tribesmen dragged Mr Chau’s body along the beach and buried his remains.
Mr Pathak said seven people have been arrested for helping Chau, including five fishermen, a friend of Chau’s and a local tourist guide.
Mr Chau was apparently shot and killed by arrows, but the cause of death can’t be confirmed until his body is recovered, Mr Pathak said.
He also said the police were examining whether Mr Chau had tried earlier to visit the isolated island.
Mr Pathak said Mr Chau and his accomplices planned well for last week’s visit by “camouflaging the visit as fishing.”
After the fishermen realised Mr Chau had been killed, they left for Port Blair, the capital of the island chain, where they broke the news to Chau’s friend, who in turn notified his family, Mr Pathak said.
Police surveyed the island by air Tuesday, and a team of police and forest department officials used a coast guard boat to travel there Wednesday. Another trip was planned for Thursday.
India has a hands-off approach to the island’s people. Tribespeople killed two Indian fishermen in 2006 when their boat broke loose and drifted onto the shore, but Indian media reports say officials did not investigate or prosecute anyone in the deaths.
India recently changed some of its rules on visiting isolated regions in the Andamans. While special permits are required, scholars say visits are now theoretically allowed in some parts of the Andamans where they used to be entirely forbidden, including North Sentinel. Chau had no permit, police said.
With Associated Press
