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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest glade far in the of Peru rainforest when he detected sounds drawing near through the thick forest.

He became aware he was surrounded, and halted.

“One stood, aiming with an projectile,” he remembers. “And somehow he detected that I was present and I commenced to run.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbor to these itinerant individuals, who avoid contact with foreigners.

An updated study from a advocacy organisation indicates remain no fewer than 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” in existence globally. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the biggest. The study states 50% of these groups may be decimated within ten years unless authorities neglect to implement further measures to safeguard them.

It argues the most significant threats are from deforestation, extraction or exploration for crude. Isolated tribes are highly at risk to ordinary disease—therefore, it says a threat is caused by contact with religious missionaries and digital content creators seeking engagement.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by locals.

This settlement is a fishing village of seven or eight clans, sitting atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the nearest village by boat.

The area is not classified as a safeguarded area for uncontacted groups, and timber firms operate here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be noticed around the clock, and the community are seeing their jungle disturbed and ruined.

Within the village, people state they are divided. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they hold profound respect for their “brothers” dwelling in the forest and wish to defend them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not change their way of life. That's why we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the community's way of life, the risk of violence and the likelihood that timber workers might subject the tribe to sicknesses they have no defense to.

While we were in the village, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. A young mother, a woman with a young girl, was in the woodland collecting fruit when she heard them.

“We detected cries, sounds from others, a large number of them. As if there were a large gathering yelling,” she shared with us.

That was the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she escaped. An hour later, her mind was continually throbbing from anxiety.

“As there are deforestation crews and companies destroying the jungle they are fleeing, possibly due to terror and they end up near us,” she stated. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. That's what scares me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while fishing. One was wounded by an projectile to the gut. He lived, but the other person was located lifeless days later with multiple arrow wounds in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to commence contact with them.

The policy was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of advocacy by community representatives, who noted that first interaction with remote tribes resulted to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, destitution and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in Peru first encountered with the world outside, 50% of their people perished within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly susceptible—in terms of health, any exposure may introduce diseases, and even the basic infections might decimate them,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any contact or interference may be highly damaging to their life and health as a community.”

For local residents of {