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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny open space deep in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed sounds drawing near through the thick jungle.

He realized that he had been encircled, and stood still.

“One stood, directing with an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he became aware of my presence and I began to run.”

He found himself encountering members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbour to these itinerant people, who shun contact with strangers.

A new report issued by a rights group states remain a minimum of 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” remaining worldwide. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the most numerous. The study says 50% of these groups may be eliminated over the coming ten years if governments fail to take additional to protect them.

It claims the most significant dangers come from logging, digging or drilling for oil. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally vulnerable to ordinary disease—consequently, the report says a risk is posed by exposure with religious missionaries and social media influencers seeking clicks.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by locals.

The village is a fishing community of several clans, perched elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway in the center of the of Peru jungle, a ten-hour journey from the nearest town by canoe.

The area is not designated as a safeguarded zone for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas reports that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be noticed continuously, and the community are observing their woodland disturbed and destroyed.

Within the village, inhabitants report they are torn. They dread the projectiles but they also have deep regard for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and wish to defend them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we are unable to modify their traditions. For this reason we keep our distance,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the possibility that deforestation crews might expose the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

At the time in the settlement, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. A young mother, a young mother with a two-year-old girl, was in the forest picking produce when she heard them.

“We heard shouting, cries from others, a large number of them. As if there was a crowd yelling,” she shared with us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the group and she ran. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was still racing from fear.

“As operate deforestation crews and companies clearing the forest they are fleeing, possibly because of dread and they end up in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the group while angling. A single person was struck by an arrow to the stomach. He survived, but the other man was found lifeless subsequently with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

Authorities in Peru follows a strategy of non-contact with secluded communities, establishing it as illegal to start interactions with them.

The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country subsequent to prolonged of lobbying by community representatives, who saw that early interaction with secluded communities lead to entire groups being eliminated by sickness, hardship and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the broader society, 50% of their community died within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any interaction could spread diseases, and even the basic infections could wipe them out,” explains an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or interference could be extremely detrimental to their existence and survival as a group.”

For those living nearby of {