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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny open space deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he heard movements approaching through the lush jungle.

He became aware that he stood encircled, and froze.

“One person positioned, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he noticed that I was present and I commenced to run.”

He had come confronting members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these itinerant people, who shun contact with strangers.

An updated document issued by a advocacy organisation indicates there are a minimum of 196 described as “uncontacted groups” in existence in the world. This tribe is considered to be the largest. The study claims a significant portion of these groups could be eliminated within ten years if governments fail to take additional to protect them.

It claims the biggest risks come from deforestation, digging or exploration for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are extremely at risk to common sickness—consequently, the study notes a danger is posed by exposure with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators looking for attention.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by inhabitants.

The village is a angling hamlet of seven or eight households, sitting high on the edges of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the closest settlement by watercraft.

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

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be heard around the clock, and the community are observing their forest disturbed and ruined.

Among the locals, residents say they are conflicted. They dread the projectiles but they also possess strong respect for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and desire to defend them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we must not modify their traditions. For this reason we preserve our space,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of violence and the chance that loggers might expose the community to illnesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the village, the tribe appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a toddler daughter, was in the forest picking produce when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, cries from individuals, a large number of them. As though it was a whole group yelling,” she informed us.

That was the first instance she had encountered the group and she escaped. An hour later, her mind was persistently pounding from terror.

“Since there are loggers and operations destroying the jungle they're running away, maybe due to terror and they arrive in proximity to us,” she explained. “We don't know what their response may be to us. This is what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were attacked by the group while fishing. One was wounded by an projectile to the stomach. He survived, but the other person was found dead days later with several puncture marks in his physique.

Authorities in Peru follows a policy of non-contact with isolated people, establishing it as forbidden to start encounters with them.

The strategy began in Brazil following many years of campaigning by community representatives, who observed that first exposure with secluded communities could lead to entire communities being wiped out by illness, poverty and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the world outside, 50% of their people perished within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people suffered the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—epidemiologically, any interaction might transmit illnesses, and even the basic infections could wipe them out,” says a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any exposure or intrusion could be extremely detrimental to their existence and health as a society.”

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