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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small glade within in the of Peru Amazon when he detected movements coming closer through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him that he stood surrounded, and halted.

“A single individual positioned, directing using an arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he became aware of my presence and I commenced to flee.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the small community of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbour to these nomadic tribe, who shun contact with foreigners.

A new study issued by a human rights group indicates exist no fewer than 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” left in the world. This tribe is believed to be the largest. The study claims 50% of these tribes may be wiped out over the coming ten years should administrations don't do more to protect them.

It argues the greatest risks are from logging, extraction or operations for oil. Uncontacted groups are extremely susceptible to ordinary disease—therefore, the report says a danger is presented by exposure with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers seeking clicks.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from locals.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's village of several households, located atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the nearest settlement by canoe.

This region is not designated as a safeguarded reserve for uncontacted groups, and logging companies function here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed around the clock, and the tribe members are seeing their woodland damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents say they are torn. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they hold deep regard for their “kin” dwelling in the forest and wish to protect them.

“Let them live as they live, we must not modify their culture. This is why we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of conflict and the chance that timber workers might subject the tribe to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the community, the group made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a two-year-old daughter, was in the woodland collecting fruit when she detected them.

“We detected cries, shouts from people, many of them. Like there were a crowd shouting,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she ran. Subsequently, her mind was persistently throbbing from terror.

“As operate deforestation crews and firms destroying the jungle they're running away, maybe out of fear and they come near us,” she explained. “We don't know what their response may be towards us. This is what frightens me.”

Two years ago, two loggers were confronted by the Mashco Piro while fishing. A single person was wounded by an arrow to the gut. He survived, but the second individual was discovered lifeless after several days with several puncture marks in his frame.

The administration has a policy of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, making it prohibited to commence encounters with them.

The strategy began in Brazil following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that initial contact with secluded communities could lead to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, hardship and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in the country made initial contact with the world outside, half of their people succumbed within a short period. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are very vulnerable—in terms of health, any exposure might introduce diseases, and including the basic infections could eliminate them,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or intrusion may be extremely detrimental to their life and health as a society.”

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