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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny glade within in the of Peru rainforest when he noticed footsteps approaching through the dense forest.

He realized that he stood surrounded, and stood still.

“One positioned, directing using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he became aware that I was present and I began to flee.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbour to these wandering people, who reject contact with strangers.

A new study from a advocacy organisation claims remain a minimum of 196 of what it calls “remote communities” left globally. This tribe is thought to be the largest. It states a significant portion of these groups might be decimated within ten years if governments don't do further measures to safeguard them.

It argues the biggest threats come from deforestation, mining or drilling for oil. Uncontacted groups are extremely vulnerable to basic disease—therefore, the study says a danger is caused by exposure with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of attention.

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

Nueva Oceania is a fishing village of several households, perched high on the edges of the local river in the heart of the of Peru jungle, a ten-hour journey from the nearest settlement by boat.

The area is not recognised as a preserved reserve for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations work here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the racket of industrial tools can be noticed around the clock, and the community are seeing their jungle disrupted and ruined.

Among the locals, inhabitants say they are conflicted. They dread the projectiles but they also possess profound admiration for their “brothers” who live in the woodland and want to defend them.

“Let them live in their own way, we must not change their culture. That's why we maintain our distance,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of aggression and the chance that loggers might subject the community to diseases they have no defense to.

During a visit in the village, the tribe appeared again. Letitia, a woman with a young child, was in the woodland picking fruit when she detected them.

“There were shouting, cries from others, a large number of them. As though it was a large gathering yelling,” she shared with us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. Subsequently, her mind was still racing from terror.

“Since exist deforestation crews and firms clearing the woodland they're running away, perhaps due to terror and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “It is unclear how they might react to us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the tribe while fishing. A single person was wounded by an bow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the second individual was discovered lifeless subsequently with multiple injuries in his frame.

Authorities in Peru has a approach of non-contact with remote tribes, making it prohibited to initiate encounters with them.

This approach was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who observed that first contact with secluded communities could lead to entire communities being wiped out by illness, poverty and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, half of their people perished within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community faced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly susceptible—in terms of health, any contact could spread illnesses, and including the basic infections may wipe them out,” says Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or intrusion could be very harmful to their existence and well-being as a community.”

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