The Dangerous Reason It's Strictly Illegal For Tourists To Visit Isolated Tribes

In early 2025, a U.S. tourist named Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov landed on North Sentinel Island, one of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. He blew a whistle on the beach, then left a can of Coca-Cola and a coconut on the shore, filming his time there. If you're not familiar with the area, this may simply sound like a case of littering. While the Andaman Islands are a place to enjoy white sand beaches on vacation, this particular island is off-limits to everyone by law. The reason is that there is an uncontacted tribe living on the island — meaning the local people avoid contact with outsiders.

Polyakov was arrested, and now social media influencers are being considered a new threat to these tribes, of which there are around 100 in the world. It's strictly illegal for anyone to visit the isolated tribe here, just as it is in parts of South America's largest national park, Chiribiquete, which you can only tour by air. One of the main reasons it's illegal to make contact with these tribes is that they have no natural immunity to common diseases we may take for granted, like the flu. In fact, according to Time, "It is not uncommon for 90% of a tribe to perish following first contact."

According to Survival International, a group that advocates for the rights of uncontacted tribes, some people may have had contact in the past and chosen to discontinue it, something they have the right to do. In addition to the potential for diseases infecting a tribe, contact in the past has meant violence, death, and theft of resources, so it makes sense that these tribes would take measures to protect their land. In fact, in 2018, another U.S. national, John Allen Chau, was killed when he visited North Sentinel Island.

Jonathan Mazower, spokesperson for Survival International, tells the BBC, "As well as all the somewhat more established threats to such peoples ... there are now an increasing number of... influencers who are trying to do this kind of thing for followers." Make no mistake. Visiting these places is illegal. For North Sentinel Island, it's against the law to get within 3 miles of the shore. That doesn't always stop intruders; in fact, Polyakov has tried to visit the island twice before but was stopped before he could do so. You may be able to visit places near uncontacted tribes, like the Peruvian city of Iquitos, along the Amazon River. However, venturing outside of areas where you're permitted to go can cause untold damage.