US national killed in Andaman was pursuing a planned adventure: NCST chief

Chau, 27, was killed by the protected and reclusive tribe off North Sentinel Island after he reached there with the help of some fishermen

Latest News:  The American national killed by Sentinelese tribesmen in the Andamans last month was pursuing a “planned adventure”, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes has said.

There are many primitive tribes like the Sentinelese in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, contact with whom is prohibited for outsiders, the commission’s chairperson Nand Kumar Sai told reporters here Tuesday. “Preliminary investigations suggest that it was a planned adventure trip by the American national, John Allen Chau. Investigation is still on,” he said.

Chau, 27, was killed by the protected and reclusive tribe off North Sentinel Island after he reached there with the help of some fishermen. Access to North Sentinel Island and its buffer zone is restricted under the Protection of Aboriginal Tribe (Regulation), 1956 and under the Indian Forest Act, 1927.(Business Standard OR BS)

Efforts are on to identify other people who assisted him in his journey, Sai said, adding that so far, seven people have been arrested in the case. “Foreign nationals always had an eye on the primitive tribes of these islands and made several attempts in the past to make contact with them. We need to protect such tribes and their habitat should be completely closed for outsiders,” Sai said.