page_title: Uncontacted peoples
section_title: India
hierarchical_section_title: Uncontacted peoples / India
caption_attribution_description: Magyar: Légifelvétel a szigetről. English: Aerial photograph of North Sentinel Island.
context_page_description: Uncontacted peoples are communities or groups of indigenous peoples living without sustained contact to neighbouring communities and the world community. In 2013 there were thought to be roughly 100 uncontacted peoples worldwide, half of whom live in the Amazon rainforest.
  Existing knowledge of indigenous peoples in isolation comes mostly from encounters with neighbouring communities like other indigenous peoples, and from aerial footage.
context_section_description: The Sentinelese people of North Sentinel Island, which lies near South Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal, reject contact; attempts to contact them have usually been rebuffed, sometimes with lethal force. Their language is markedly different from other languages on the Andamans, which suggests that they may have remained isolated for thousands of years. They have been called by experts the most isolated people in the world, and they are likely to remain so. However private people have attempted to intrude upon them repeatedly. Such attempts are against the law. Most recently, in November 2018, American missionary John Allen Chau was slain by the Sentinelese during an illegal expedition to the island. Chau had an intent to convert the tribe to Christianity. During the 2001 Census of India, a joint expedition  conducted during 23–24 February 2001 identified at least a few dozen individuals, but it was not exhaustive. Helicopter surveys after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami confirmed the Sentinelese had survived, and there have been a few limited interactions with them since. The local Andaman and Nicobar administration has adopted an "eyes-on and hands-off" policy to ensure that no poachers enter the island. A protocol of circumnavigation of North Sentinel Island has been made and notified in consultation with the Indian government.
  Another Andamanese tribe, the Jarawas, live on the main islands, largely isolated from other peoples. They are thought to number a few hundred people.
caption: Aerial photograph of North Sentinel Island
exif: {}