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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny open space far in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed movements coming closer through the lush woodland.

He realized he was encircled, and halted.

“One was standing, pointing with an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he became aware I was here and I began to flee.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—residing in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—was almost a local to these wandering people, who shun interaction with strangers.

A new report from a rights group claims exist at least 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” left in the world. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the largest. The report says 50% of these tribes could be eliminated within ten years unless authorities don't do further actions to defend them.

It argues the biggest dangers come from timber harvesting, extraction or operations for oil. Remote communities are extremely at risk to basic sickness—as such, the study says a threat is presented by interaction with proselytizers and social media influencers looking for attention.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by inhabitants.

This settlement is a fishermen's community of seven or eight families, sitting atop on the banks of the local river in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest, half a day from the closest town by canoe.

The area is not recognised as a preserved area for remote communities, and timber firms operate here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the racket of industrial tools can be heard day and night, and the community are seeing their jungle damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents state they are conflicted. They are afraid of the projectiles but they hold deep admiration for their “kin” residing in the woodland and desire to protect them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we can't change their culture. That's why we keep our separation,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of aggression and the possibility that timber workers might introduce the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a young mother with a toddler child, was in the forest collecting fruit when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, sounds from individuals, a large number of them. As though there were a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the group and she ran. An hour later, her mind was still throbbing from fear.

“Since operate deforestation crews and operations clearing the jungle they are fleeing, possibly due to terror and they arrive near us,” she said. “We don't know how they might react with us. This is what frightens me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the tribe while fishing. A single person was struck by an projectile to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was located deceased subsequently with multiple puncture marks in his body.

The Peruvian government maintains a strategy of non-contact with remote tribes, making it prohibited to commence encounters with them.

The strategy was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that early exposure with isolated people resulted to whole populations being decimated by disease, poverty and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, 50% of their people perished within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are highly vulnerable—in terms of health, any contact might introduce diseases, and including the simplest ones could eliminate them,” states a representative from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or intrusion could be highly damaging to their way of life and health as a group.”

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