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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a tiny clearing deep in the of Peru jungle when he noticed movements approaching through the lush forest.

He became aware that he stood hemmed in, and froze.

“One was standing, directing using an arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he noticed I was here and I commenced to run.”

He had come face to face members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbor to these nomadic people, who reject contact with foreigners.

A recent document issued by a human rights organization indicates there are no fewer than 196 termed “uncontacted groups” left worldwide. This tribe is considered to be the most numerous. It says half of these tribes could be wiped out in the next decade should administrations fail to take more to protect them.

The report asserts the biggest threats are from logging, extraction or exploration for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly at risk to basic illness—therefore, it says a threat is caused by exposure with religious missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of attention.

Lately, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by locals.

The village is a fishermen's community of seven or eight clans, located atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu River deep within the of Peru Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible village by canoe.

This region is not designated as a safeguarded zone for isolated tribes, and logging companies work here.

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their jungle damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, people say they are conflicted. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold profound regard for their “relatives” dwelling in the forest and want to defend them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we must not change their traditions. For this reason we keep our space,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the community's way of life, the risk of aggression and the possibility that deforestation crews might subject the tribe to diseases they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. A young mother, a resident with a young daughter, was in the jungle gathering food when she heard them.

“We heard shouting, shouts from people, a large number of them. Like there was a whole group yelling,” she told us.

This marked the first time she had come across the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her thoughts was persistently racing from anxiety.

“Since exist loggers and companies destroying the woodland they are fleeing, maybe because of dread and they come close to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they will behave with us. That's what scares me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the group while angling. A single person was struck by an arrow to the abdomen. He lived, but the other person was discovered dead subsequently with multiple puncture marks in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to commence encounters with them.

The policy began in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who noted that early interaction with remote tribes could lead to whole populations being eliminated by disease, hardship and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in the country came into contact with the broader society, 50% of their community perished within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely at risk—epidemiologically, any contact could spread illnesses, and including the basic infections could wipe them out,” explains a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any contact or intrusion may be very harmful to their way of life and health as a group.”

For those living nearby of {