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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny glade far in the of Peru Amazon when he heard sounds approaching through the thick jungle.

It dawned on him that he stood hemmed in, and halted.

“One was standing, pointing with an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he detected I was here and I started to flee.”

He had come encountering the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbor to these wandering tribe, who reject contact with strangers.

A new study from a human rights organization indicates exist a minimum of 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” remaining globally. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the biggest. The study says half of these groups may be wiped out in the next decade if governments fail to take further actions to defend them.

It claims the biggest risks stem from deforestation, extraction or operations for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally vulnerable to ordinary sickness—consequently, the report states a risk is caused by contact with evangelical missionaries and online personalities looking for engagement.

Recently, members of the tribe have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of several clans, sitting high on the banks of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the closest village by canoe.

The area is not recognised as a safeguarded zone for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard continuously, and the tribe members are witnessing their forest disrupted and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants report they are torn. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold strong admiration for their “kin” residing in the forest and desire to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we must not modify their way of life. This is why we maintain our space,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the tribe's survival, the risk of conflict and the possibility that timber workers might expose the community to diseases they have no defense to.

While we were in the community, the group appeared again. A young mother, a young mother with a young girl, was in the jungle picking food when she heard them.

“We heard calls, shouts from others, numerous of them. As if there was a large gathering yelling,” she informed us.

That was the initial occasion she had come across the Mashco Piro and she ran. Subsequently, her mind was continually throbbing from fear.

“As exist loggers and operations cutting down the forest they are escaping, possibly because of dread and they end up near us,” she explained. “We are uncertain how they will behave with us. That's what scares me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the tribe while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an arrow to the abdomen. He survived, but the second individual was found dead after several days with multiple injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of non-contact with isolated people, making it forbidden to initiate interactions with them.

The strategy was first adopted in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of lobbying by community representatives, who saw that early contact with secluded communities resulted to whole populations being eliminated by disease, poverty and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country made initial contact with the world outside, half of their population succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are very vulnerable—epidemiologically, any interaction could introduce sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses may eliminate them,” says a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or intrusion may be extremely detrimental to their life and survival as a society.”

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