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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny glade far in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard sounds approaching through the thick forest.

He became aware that he had been hemmed in, and halted.

“One was standing, pointing with an arrow,” he states. “And somehow he became aware that I was present and I commenced to run.”

He ended up confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—residing in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbor to these itinerant people, who avoid engagement with strangers.

A recent report from a human rights organisation states there are no fewer than 196 termed “uncontacted groups” remaining worldwide. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the most numerous. It claims a significant portion of these tribes may be decimated in the next decade if governments neglect to implement additional actions to defend them.

It argues the biggest dangers stem from logging, digging or exploration for petroleum. Remote communities are exceptionally vulnerable to basic disease—therefore, the study states a risk is posed by exposure with religious missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of engagement.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by residents.

The village is a fishing hamlet of a handful of households, sitting elevated on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible town by watercraft.

This region is not designated as a safeguarded area for remote communities, and logging companies function here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be noticed day and night, and the tribe members are witnessing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

Among the locals, inhabitants state they are torn. They dread the projectiles but they also have profound admiration for their “brothers” who live in the jungle and desire to protect them.

“Let them live as they live, we can't alter their culture. For this reason we preserve our separation,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the community's way of life, the danger of aggression and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the community, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. A young mother, a woman with a toddler daughter, was in the jungle picking fruit when she detected them.

“There were shouting, sounds from people, many of them. As if it was a whole group shouting,” she informed us.

This marked the first instance she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. Subsequently, her head was still pounding from anxiety.

“Because there are timber workers and companies cutting down the woodland they're running away, maybe because of dread and they end up in proximity to us,” she said. “We don't know what their response may be towards us. This is what scares me.”

Recently, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while angling. One was hit by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the other man was located deceased subsequently with several injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government has a strategy of non-contact with secluded communities, establishing it as forbidden to start contact with them.

The policy began in the neighboring country following many years of lobbying by community representatives, who observed that first contact with secluded communities lead to entire communities being decimated by sickness, poverty and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in Peru first encountered with the outside world, a significant portion of their people died within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe faced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are extremely at risk—from a disease perspective, any exposure could introduce sicknesses, and including the simplest ones could decimate them,” states Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any contact or intrusion may be extremely detrimental to their life and health as a community.”

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