North Sentinel Island is sizeable at about 20 square miles and fairly round with protected coral reefs on most sides leading to small beaches that disappear quickly into dense, dark jungle. Viewing the shore from the reefs there is no evidence that the tribe practices deforestation or exerts any meaningful control over the land.
Anthropologists suppose that the Sentinelese have been separated from the other Andaman island tribes for tens of thousands of years, with strong evidence being that the small amounts of recorded language share almost no similarities with the range of aboriginal Andaman languages.
Given the length of separation, the small island could hold a range of unique species of plants and animals. A documentary crew that visited the island brought the Sentinelese a live, tied pig that the natives killed and buried the pig. The tribe hurriedly grabbed the coconuts the crew threw into the shallows. So, the island may not harbor sizeable animal life or the Sentinelese hunted such creatures to extinction long ago. The wide area of the reefs almost guarantees that fishing is a main source of food.
A Troubling History of Contact
From passed down stories we know that the native tribes of the Andamans knew of the existence but it may have been too far away and too hostile for sustained relations. Once recorded history had been around in India we hear about the Sentinelese being bystanders to the invasions of the Andamans by the Chola Dynasty of southern India.
The conquests at most would have simply stopped by the island to regroup or fish, but certainly, would have brought imposingly large medieval era ships to the shores. Imagine the amount of legends that may have spread through the natives at the sight of such ships.
Contact is unrecorded for the next several centuries until the British began asserting control of India. With the British and the East India company came far more shipping and exploration. During a sail-by survey from the East India Company, surveyors found evidence of a thriving population. In a write-up of the visit in 1771 surveyor John Ritchie said, “if we may judge from the multitude of lights seen upon the shore at night, it is well inhabited.” A British trading vessel of nearly 200 men ran aground on the reefs in the 1770s and the crew had to fight off several furious attacks from the natives before they were rescued with no losses.
Eventually the British exerted more control of the Andamans under the leadership of Maurice Vidal Portman, named officer in charge of the Andamans. Portman used force on occasion but was largely successful at simply befriending the various native tribes, including the previously hostile Onge who now have a stable population to this day.
Portman led a land expedition to North Sentinel Island in 1880 with armed guards. The party went into the depths of the jungle and found many worn footpaths and abandoned villages, but evident signs of habitation; the Sentinelese who were able seemed to have retreated and watched from afar. Portman did find two elderly Sentinelese and four children and took them back to the nearby Port Blair.
Unfortunately, the six captives became quite ill due to any number of possible diseases. Though the British made efforts to be friendly and helpful to integrate and establish friendly contact, they eventually decided to return the children after the elderly couple died from illness. The children may have been sick as well and could have spread disease through the island on their return.
The whole ordeal of kidnapping, death, and disease must have been horrific for the Sentinelese. They may have killed the children out of fear, or cared for them and suffered a wave of disease that we know from other encounters can wipe out 50-75% of an unexposed population. Portman may have had good intentions but this incident may have cemented the hostile nature of the Sentinelese. From Portman’s visits (he came back several times with no major progress and some hostile contact) to today was only a few generations and the terrible stories of the abductions likely still circulate through the tribe today.