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Indigenous insular uncontacted tribe in the Bay of Bengal

The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a Scheduled Tribe, they belong to the broader class of Andamanese peoples. Along with the Great Andamanese, the Jarawas, the Onge, the Shompen, and the Nicobarese, the Sentinelese are one of the six native and often reclusive peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Unlike the others, the Sentinelese appear to have consistently refused any interaction with the outside world. They are hostile to outsiders and have killed people who approached or landed on the island. In 1956, the Government of India declared North Sentinel Island a tribal reserve and prohibited travel within of it. It further maintains a constant armed patrol in the surrounding waters to prevent intrusions by outsiders. Photography is prohibited. There is significant uncertainty as to the group's size, with estimates ranging between 35 and 500 individuals, but mostly between 50 and 200.

The Sentinelese live on North Sentinel Island, in the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal. The island lies about west of Andaman capital Port Blair. During a 2014 circumnavigation of their island, researchers put their height between and recorded their skin colour as "dark, shining black" with well aligned teeth. They showed no signs of obesity and had very prominent muscles.

Because of their complete isolation, nearly nothing is known about the Sentinelese language, which is therefore unclassified. It has been recorded that the Jarawa language is mutually unintelligible with the Sentinelese language. Photography was prohibited. A constant armed patrol prevents intrusions by outsiders. The Sentinelese are a community of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a Scheduled Tribe, they belong to the broader class of Andamanese people. Along with the Great Andamanese, the Jarawas, the Onge, the Shompen, and the Nicobarese, the Sentinelese are one of the six native and often reclusive peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The first peaceful contact with the Sentinelese was made by Triloknath Pandit, a director of the Anthropological Survey of India, and his colleagues on 4 January 1991. Indian visits to the island ceased in 1997. An American, John Allen Chau, was killed in 2018 while visiting the island illegally as a Christian missionary.

In 1771, an East India Company hydrographic survey vessel, the Diligent, observed "a multitude of lights upon the shore" of North Sentinel Island, which is the island's first recorded mention. The crew did not investigate. The man and woman died of illness shortly after their arrival in Port Blair and the children began to fall ill as well. Portman hurriedly sent the children back to North Sentinel Island with a large quantity of gifts in an attempt to establish friendly relations. In 1896, a convict escaped from the penal colony on Great Andaman Island on a makeshift raft and drifted across to the North Sentinel beach. His body was discovered by a search party some days later with several arrow piercings and a cut throat. The party recorded that they did not see any islanders. Temple also recorded a case where a Sentinelese apparently drifted off to the Onge and fraternized with them over the course of two years. When Temple and Portman accompanied him to the tribe and attempted to establish friendly contact, they did not recognize him and responded aggressively by shooting arrows at the group. The man refused to remain on the island. Notably, the Sentinelese were counted as a standalone group for the first time in the 1911 census. In 1954, Italian explorer Lidio Cipriani visited the island but did not encounter any inhabitants.

In 1967, a group of 20 people, comprising the governor, armed forces and naval personnel, were led by T. N. Pandit, an Indian anthropologist working for the Anthropological Survey of India, to North Sentinel Island to explore it and befriend the Sentinelese. This was the first visit to the island by a professional anthropologist.

On 2 August 1981, the MV Primrose, carrying a bulk cargo of chicken feed from Bangladesh to Australia, ran aground in rough seas just off North Sentinel Island, stranding a small crew. After a few days, the captain dispatched a distress call asking for a drop of firearms and reported boats being prepared by more than 50 armed islanders intending to board the ship. Strong waves prevented the Sentinelese canoes from reaching the ship and deflected their arrows. The crew of 31 men were keeping a twenty four hour guard with axes, pipes, and flare guns. Nearly a week later, the crew were evacuated by a civilian helicopter contracted to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) with support from Indian naval forces. The Sentinelese scoured the abandoned shipwrecks to salvage iron for their weaponry. including anthropologist Madhumala Chattopadhyay. This was the first time a woman was a part of a contact expedition with the Sentinelese. During a 4 January 1991 visit, the Sentinelese approached the party without weaponry for the first time. They collected coconuts that were offered but retreated to the shore as the team gestured for them to come closer. The team returned to the main ship, MV Tarmugli. It returned to the island in the afternoon to find at least two dozen Sentinelese on the shoreline, one of whom pointed a bow and arrow at the party. Once a woman pushed the arrow down, the man buried his weapons in the sand and the Sentinelese approached quite close to the dinghies for the first time. The Director of Tribal Welfare distributed five bags of coconuts hand to hand. According to one report, the bodies were later put on bamboo stakes facing out to sea like scarecrows. Three days later, an Indian Coast Guard helicopter, dispatched for the purpose, found the buried bodies. When the helicopter tried to retrieve them, the Sentinelese attacked it with arrows, and according to some sources with spears, and the mission was soon abandoned. There were contrasting views in the local community as to whether the Sentinelese ought to be prosecuted for the murder. Pandya hypothesizes that the aggressive response might have been caused by the sudden withdrawal of those gift carrying expeditions, which was not influenced or informed by any acts of the Sentinelese. He also notes that whilst the images of the hostile Sentinelese the helicopter sorties captured were heavily propagated in the media, the images of them burying the dead were never released. This selective display effectively negated the friendly images that circulated in the aftermath of the 1991 contact, which had already been taken out of public display, and restored the 1975 National Geographic narrative.

In November 2018, John Allen Chau, a 26 year old American trained and sent by the US based Christian missionary organization All Nations, travelled to North Sentinel Island with the aim of contacting and living among the Sentinelese He did not seek the necessary permits required to visit the island. On 15 November, Chau paid local fishermen to take him to a point from the island's shore, then continued to the island in a canoe. As he approached, he attempted to communicate with the islanders Eventually, according to Chau's last letter, when he tried to hand over fish and gifts, a boy shot a metal headed arrow that pierced the Bible he was holding in front of his chest, after which he retreated again. On his final visit, on 17 November, Chau instructed the fishermen to leave without him. and the U. S. government confirmed that it did not ask the Indian government to press charges against the tribe. Indian officials made several attempts to recover Chau's body but eventually abandoned those efforts. An anthropologist involved in the case told The Guardian that the risk of a dangerous clash between investigators and the islanders was too great to justify any further attempts.