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Almost half of the world's remote tribes could be "wiped out" in the next 10 years after being put at risk by YouTubers , a charity has warned. Outsiders making contact with the indigenous groups threaten to expose them to new diseases. And a new report from London-based Indigenous rights organisation Survival International says previously uncontacted groups are seeing 'surging numbers' of influencers who enter their territories and 'deliberately seek interaction' with tribes. As well as Brit 'wannabe adventurers' using the tribes for clicks, criminal gangs looking to traffic drugs or run illegal mining operations deep in the Amazon were also becoming a bigger threat, the charity warned. The report warned: "Despite their resistance, all uncontacted peoples are under threat. Without a stop to invasions and forced contact, up to half will be wiped out in the next 10 years." It added: "Adventure-seeking tourists or influencers are particularly prevalent in Asia and the Pacific. These efforts are far from benign. All contact kills. All countries must have no-contact policies in place. "Contact exposes uncontacted peoples to diseases. It is almost invariably accompanied by the theft and destruction of lands on which these peoples rely for food, water, shelter and medicine. "The results of contact are catastrophic the devastating and predictable deaths of children, parents, siblings and friends on a genocidal scale. "But uncontacted peoples are not living 'entertainment' for others, and their lives and rights cannot carelessly be exchanged for likes on TikTok or subscriptions to YouTube channels." It described India's North Sentinel island — home to the "the most isolated indigenous people in the world" — as becoming increasingly targeted by "adventure influencers and illegal fishers who steal food". It is illegal to travel within 5km of the island to protect the inhabitants but hashtags are shared by thousands of people on social media platforms that promote making contact with the tribe. The charity claimed that Miles Routledge, a British YouTuber known as "Lord Miles", had "boasted of his detailed plans to visit the island and claimed satellite data shows the Indian authorities are not properly monitoring the island, making it easy for him to illegally get there". In March, US influencer Mykhailo Vikorovych Polyakov landed on the island and tried to contact the Sentinelese after allegedly offering them "a can of Diet Coke and a coconut". He was arrested by the Indian authorities and could be facing a long jail sentence. The group also condemned anthropologists and filmmakers for deliberately seeking uncontacted people 'as an object of study... without thought for the potentially devastating consequences'. It gave the example of beloved broadcaster David Attenborough, who in 1971 joined an Australian colonial government patrol in Papua New Guinea in an attempt to contact and film an uncontacted tribe. It called the moment "a reckless encounter which could easily have passed on deadly pathogens to which the[tribe] had no immunity". There are currently 196 remaining uncontacted Indigenous groups living in forests across the globe who have their own languages, cultures and territories. Survival's research concludes that half of these groups 'could be wiped out within 10 years if governments and companies do not act.' For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here .
