Chau’s body still to be recovered after 10 days of his death

Kolkata: NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – On Sunday, top officials from the Anthropological Survey of India arrived Port Blair to start a four-day consultation with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration and experts regarding the death of US citizen and other policy matters which includes travel restrictions in the area.

It’s been 10 days since death report of John Allen Chau, a US missionary was attacked by indigenous people settled on North Sentinel island but recovering his body from the island is the biggest challenge for the local administration.

A senior AnSI official showed his concern towards extracting his remains from the island. “After 10 days of his death in this circumstances, we can only expect a skeleton remains as we do not know how and where exactly the body is been placed.”

The four days consultation will include key decision to be taken on policies regarding the island and impose a strict restriction on the access to the island which was withdrawn recently.

In a recent issue of ‘Journal’, M Sasikumar, deputy director of AnSI who was part of a team that visited the island in 2014 to assess the impact of a forest fire there expressed that The present policy of no deliberate contact and intervene only when threatened by natural calamity is to be continued. State protection may be required in times of natural calamities but they are also entitled to respect and their freedom to change at their own pace as autonomous units within the overarching framework of a larger society and the nation-state and to understand what they want is an issue for in-depth research.

He also penned down that,“ Constant vigil is required to keep the poachers away from the island.”

Chau’s death has made national and international headlines and renewed the debate on the importance of leaving protected tribes alone.

Earlier in 2004, a tribe member was famously photographed attempting to shoot an arrow at a Coast Guard helicopter that had flown over the North Sentinel Island to check if the tribe was fine in aftermath of the devastating 2004 tsunami.

Similarly, in 2006, the tribe killed two Indian fishermen who had accidentally landed on the coast.

The 2011 Census of India counted just 15 Sentinelese on the island. However, the number could be higher since the census was done from a distance. For the fear of an arrow.

Sentinelese, bow and arrow-wielders are among the last ‘uncontacted people’ in the world who are believed to have migrated from Africa around 60,000 years ago. They survive by hunting, gathering or basic fishing and have rejected outside contact.