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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny open space deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed sounds coming closer through the thick woodland.

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

“One stood, directing using an arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he became aware of my presence and I commenced to flee.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a local to these wandering tribe, who reject contact with outsiders.

An updated study issued by a rights organization indicates remain a minimum of 196 described as “isolated tribes” in existence globally. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the most numerous. The study states half of these groups may be decimated within ten years if governments don't do additional actions to defend them.

It claims the most significant threats come from deforestation, mining or operations for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to basic disease—consequently, the study states a danger is caused by contact with religious missionaries and social media influencers looking for attention.

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

The village is a fishermen's community of several households, sitting elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the of Peru Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible settlement by watercraft.

The territory is not designated as a preserved reserve for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations operate here.

Tomas reports that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the community are witnessing their forest damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, people report they are divided. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have strong regard for their “brothers” who live in the jungle and want to safeguard them.

“Let them live as they live, we can't alter their way of life. That's why we maintain our space,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the community's way of life, the danger of aggression and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the village, the group appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a two-year-old girl, was in the jungle gathering fruit when she heard them.

“We heard cries, sounds from people, many of them. As if there were a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the tribe and she fled. An hour later, her head was continually throbbing from terror.

“Since there are timber workers and operations destroying the jungle they are fleeing, perhaps out of fear and they end up near us,” she said. “We don't know how they will behave to us. That's what frightens me.”

Two years ago, two loggers were attacked by the group while fishing. One was hit by an arrow to the stomach. He survived, but the other man was found deceased subsequently with nine puncture marks in his body.

Authorities in Peru has a strategy of no engagement with isolated people, making it forbidden to commence contact with them.

The strategy began in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that initial exposure with secluded communities lead to entire communities being wiped out by sickness, destitution and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the outside world, half of their population died within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—in terms of health, any contact may transmit diseases, and even the simplest ones may decimate them,” states an advocate from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any exposure or disruption can be very harmful to their life and health as a society.”

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