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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny glade far in the Peruvian Amazon when he heard footsteps drawing near through the thick woodland.

He became aware that he stood hemmed in, and halted.

“One was standing, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he detected I was here and I began to escape.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the small village of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these itinerant tribe, who shun contact with strangers.

A new document from a rights group claims remain a minimum of 196 described as “isolated tribes” in existence worldwide. This tribe is considered to be the biggest. The study states half of these communities could be decimated over the coming ten years if governments fail to take additional measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the greatest risks stem from deforestation, mining or drilling for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly at risk to basic illness—therefore, the study states a danger is caused by contact with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators seeking attention.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by locals.

The village is a fishing hamlet of several clans, located atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the of Peru jungle, 10 hours from the nearest settlement by watercraft.

This region is not recognised as a protected reserve for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the racket of logging machinery can be heard continuously, and the community are witnessing their jungle damaged and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants report they are divided. They fear the projectiles but they hold deep respect for their “kin” dwelling in the forest and desire to defend them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we are unable to modify their way of life. For this reason we preserve our separation,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the tribe's survival, the danger of violence and the chance that loggers might expose the tribe to illnesses they have no immunity to.

At the time in the community, the tribe appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a toddler daughter, was in the jungle collecting food when she noticed them.

“We heard cries, shouts from others, a large number of them. As though there were a whole group yelling,” she informed us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. Subsequently, her thoughts was persistently pounding from fear.

“Since exist loggers and operations clearing the forest they are fleeing, maybe due to terror and they come in proximity to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they might react to us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

Recently, two loggers were attacked by the group while angling. A single person was wounded by an arrow to the stomach. He survived, but the other person was discovered dead after several days with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

Authorities in Peru has a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it forbidden to start interactions with them.

This approach began in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by community representatives, who saw that initial interaction with secluded communities could lead to entire communities being decimated by sickness, destitution and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their community succumbed within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe faced the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are very at risk—from a disease perspective, any exposure may introduce sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses could eliminate them,” explains an advocate from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or interference can be very harmful to their life and health as a group.”

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