A 24-year-old American YouTuber is staring down the possibility of a five-year prison sentence after illegally sneaking onto one of the world’s most forbidden islands and leaving a can of Diet Coke for a tribe that has killed outsiders before. The content creator, Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, is from Scottsdale, Arizona, and is currently being held in India after his bold stunt ended in an arrest.
According to CBS News, Polyakov was arrested on March 31, 2025, two days after he landed on the restricted shores of North Sentinel Island, located in India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indian law bans all visitors from coming within 3 miles of the island, where the Sentinelese tribe has lived in complete isolation for thousands of years.
Polyakov runs a YouTube channel focused on travel to high-risk parts of the world, including Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. But North Sentinel Island was his most ambitious target yet. He had reportedly tried to reach the island twice before finally making it on his third attempt.
A 9-hour rubber dinghy ride and a whistle that nobody answered
Getting to the island was no small feat. Polyakov spent several months studying sea conditions, tides, and the island’s layout before attempting his trip. He used GPS navigation and surveyed the area through binoculars before landing. After floating for nine hours on a rubber dinghy, he reached the shore, where he blew a whistle to try and get the tribe’s attention. Nobody responded.
He stayed on the beach for roughly an hour before giving up on making contact. Before leaving, he placed a coconut and a can of Diet Coke on the sand as an offering, then shot footage on his camera and collected sand samples. Local fishermen spotted him on his way back and reported him to authorities. He was arrested two days later in Port Blair, the regional capital.
A senior police officer told CBS News that regardless of how the trip is framed, laws were broken: “It may be claimed to be an adventure trip, but the fact is that there has been a violation of Indian laws. Outsiders meeting Sentinelese could endanger the tribe’s survival.”
Charged with entering a prohibited tribal reserve
Polyakov has been charged with illegally entering a protected tribal zone, which under Indian law carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine. His next court appearance is set for April 29. A U.S. consulate official visited him in jail, and the U.S. Embassy confirmed it is tracking the situation, telling reporters it takes its responsibility to assist Americans abroad seriously.
Survival International, a group that advocates for the rights of indigenous communities, did not hold back in its response to the incident. The group’s director, Caroline Pearce, said in a statement that it “beggars belief that someone could be that reckless and idiotic.” She added that Polyakov “not only endangered his own life, but also put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk,” noting that uncontacted peoples have no immunity to common diseases like flu or measles, which could potentially wipe out the entire community.
The island has a deadly history with outsiders
This is not the first time someone has paid a serious price for approaching North Sentinel Island. In 2018, American missionary John Allen Chau landed on the island illegally in what he reportedly believed was a divine mission. He was killed almost immediately, shot by a barrage of arrows. The Sentinelese then buried his body on the beach. Attempts to recover his remains were eventually abandoned out of concern it would further agitate the tribe.
In 2006, two Indian fishermen who drifted too close to the island were also killed. The Sentinelese are known to use bows, arrows, and spears against anyone who approaches, and the Indian government has historically kept any interaction to a bare minimum, limited to rare official “gift-giving” trips where small teams leave bananas and coconuts from a safe distance.
Pearce of Survival International pointed to the Chau incident directly, saying the tribe has made their position on outsiders completely clear over the years. This is not the first time a content creator has found themselves in legal trouble abroad for a controversial stunt, and Polyakov is not the only one whose dangerous choices overseas have ended in a courtroom. In another shocking case, ex-Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax was linked to a fatal domestic incident that shook headlines earlier this year.
Other creators have drawn criticism for similar stunts involving isolated tribes. The NELK Boys faced backlash after offering vapes and alcohol to an indigenous tribe, while an Irish travel influencer went viral in 2025 for a risky recorded encounter with an isolated group in Papua, Indonesia.
