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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small clearing deep in the of Peru rainforest when he heard movements drawing near through the lush jungle.

He realized that he had been surrounded, and halted.

“A single individual was standing, pointing with an arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he detected of my presence and I began to escape.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the small community of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbour to these nomadic people, who shun contact with outsiders.

A recent report issued by a human rights organisation indicates there are a minimum of 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” left globally. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the largest. The report states half of these tribes may be decimated within ten years should administrations don't do further to protect them.

It claims the biggest dangers stem from deforestation, mining or exploration for oil. Uncontacted groups are extremely at risk to ordinary disease—consequently, the report states a threat is posed by interaction with religious missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of engagement.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to residents.

This settlement is a fishermen's community of a handful of households, located elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the closest settlement by watercraft.

The territory is not recognised as a protected area for uncontacted groups, and timber firms work here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the racket of industrial tools can be detected day and night, and the tribe members are seeing their woodland damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, inhabitants say they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess profound admiration for their “brothers” dwelling in the woodland and want to safeguard them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we can't change their traditions. For this reason we keep our space,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the risk of violence and the likelihood that timber workers might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the settlement, the group appeared again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the jungle gathering produce when she heard them.

“We detected shouting, cries from others, many of them. As if there were a whole group shouting,” she told us.

This marked the first time she had met the group and she escaped. Subsequently, her mind was persistently pounding from fear.

“Since operate loggers and operations cutting down the woodland they are escaping, possibly out of fear and they arrive near us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Recently, two loggers were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One man was hit by an bow to the stomach. He recovered, but the second individual was located deceased days later with multiple arrow wounds in his frame.

The Peruvian government maintains a approach of non-contact with remote tribes, making it forbidden to initiate contact with them.

The strategy began in a nearby nation after decades of campaigning by community representatives, who noted that initial exposure with remote tribes resulted to entire groups being eliminated by disease, destitution and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the outside world, half of their population died within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe faced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any contact may spread sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses may wipe them out,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any contact or interference may be very harmful to their existence and well-being as a group.”

For local residents of {