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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade within in the of Peru jungle when he heard movements coming closer through the dense woodland.

He became aware that he had been surrounded, and halted.

“One positioned, pointing with an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he noticed of my presence and I began to run.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—residing in the small community of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbour to these itinerant people, who shun contact with foreigners.

A new document from a human rights organization claims remain at least 196 described as “isolated tribes” in existence in the world. This tribe is thought to be the most numerous. It claims a significant portion of these groups could be wiped out over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take more actions to defend them.

The report asserts the biggest threats stem from logging, extraction or exploration for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly vulnerable to common sickness—as such, the study says a risk is posed by interaction with religious missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from residents.

This settlement is a fishermen's village of several households, located high on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, 10 hours from the closest town by watercraft.

This region is not designated as a safeguarded area for remote communities, and deforestation operations work here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the sound of logging machinery can be detected continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their woodland damaged and ruined.

Among the locals, residents report they are conflicted. They fear the projectiles but they also have deep respect for their “brothers” who live in the jungle and wish to defend them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we can't modify their traditions. That's why we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the possibility that loggers might subject the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the community, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia, a resident with a young girl, was in the jungle gathering produce when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from individuals, a large number of them. Like there were a crowd shouting,” she shared with us.

It was the initial occasion she had encountered the tribe and she fled. After sixty minutes, her head was still pounding from anxiety.

“As operate loggers and firms destroying the forest they are escaping, maybe due to terror and they arrive in proximity to us,” she explained. “We don't know what their response may be with us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One was hit by an arrow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other person was located dead days later with nine injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of non-contact with secluded communities, making it prohibited to start interactions with them.

The strategy began in the neighboring country after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who noted that first interaction with isolated people resulted to entire groups being decimated by disease, poverty and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their people died within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are extremely vulnerable—in terms of health, any interaction may spread illnesses, and even the basic infections could decimate them,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any contact or disruption can be extremely detrimental to their way of life and survival as a community.”

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