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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small clearing deep in the of Peru rainforest when he heard movements coming closer through the thick woodland.

He realized he was encircled, and halted.

“One person positioned, pointing with an arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected of my presence and I started to flee.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbor to these nomadic tribe, who avoid contact with strangers.

A recent study issued by a rights group states exist at least 196 described as “isolated tribes” left worldwide. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the most numerous. The report says a significant portion of these communities could be wiped out over the coming ten years if governments fail to take further actions to defend them.

The report asserts the biggest threats are from timber harvesting, digging or exploration for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to ordinary sickness—as such, the study says a danger is presented by contact with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of engagement.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to locals.

This settlement is a fishermen's hamlet of seven or eight families, located high on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru rainforest, half a day from the most accessible settlement by watercraft.

The territory is not designated as a protected zone for remote communities, and deforestation operations function here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the sound of heavy equipment can be noticed around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their woodland damaged and ruined.

Within the village, inhabitants state they are torn. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold strong regard for their “brothers” residing in the forest and want to safeguard them.

“Let them live as they live, we must not change their culture. This is why we keep our separation,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the tribe's survival, the risk of violence and the likelihood that deforestation crews might introduce the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the community, the group made themselves known again. A young mother, a woman with a young daughter, was in the forest collecting produce when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, shouts from others, many of them. As if there was a whole group yelling,” she shared with us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the Mashco Piro and she ran. After sixty minutes, her mind was persistently racing from terror.

“As exist timber workers and firms destroying the woodland they're running away, maybe out of fear and they come near us,” she stated. “We don't know what their response may be with us. That's what frightens me.”

Recently, two loggers were confronted by the tribe while catching fish. One was hit by an projectile to the stomach. He recovered, but the second individual was discovered dead subsequently with nine arrow wounds in his physique.

The administration follows a policy of no engagement with secluded communities, making it prohibited to start encounters with them.

This approach was first adopted in Brazil following many years of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who observed that initial contact with secluded communities could lead to entire groups being wiped out by illness, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, 50% of their people died within a few years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe faced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact could transmit diseases, and even the basic infections might wipe them out,” says a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or intrusion may be extremely detrimental to their life and survival as a group.”

For local residents of {