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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a tiny clearing far in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard movements coming closer through the dense jungle.

He became aware that he stood encircled, and halted.

“One stood, directing using an bow and arrow,” he states. “Unexpectedly he noticed I was here and I started to flee.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbour to these itinerant people, who reject interaction with strangers.

A new report by a rights organisation states exist no fewer than 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” left in the world. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the biggest. The report states half of these groups might be decimated in the next decade if governments fail to take additional to protect them.

The report asserts the biggest dangers are from logging, digging or operations for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to basic sickness—as such, the study states a risk is posed by interaction with religious missionaries and online personalities looking for clicks.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to locals.

The village is a fishing community of several families, sitting elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the nearest village by watercraft.

The territory is not designated as a preserved zone for remote communities, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, at times, the racket of industrial tools can be heard around the clock, and the community are seeing their forest disrupted and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants state they are divided. They are afraid of the projectiles but they also have strong respect for their “brothers” residing in the forest and wish to protect them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we can't change their traditions. For this reason we keep our separation,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the community's way of life, the threat of violence and the chance that deforestation crews might expose the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the village, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle picking fruit when she detected them.

“There were cries, sounds from individuals, many of them. As if there was a whole group shouting,” she shared with us.

That was the initial occasion she had encountered the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her thoughts was still throbbing from fear.

“Since operate loggers and companies cutting down the forest they are escaping, possibly due to terror and they arrive in proximity to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. This is what frightens me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were attacked by the Mashco Piro while catching fish. One was wounded by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the second individual was discovered lifeless subsequently with several puncture marks in his body.

The administration has a policy of non-contact with isolated people, rendering it illegal to start encounters with them.

This approach was first adopted in Brazil after decades of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that early interaction with isolated people resulted to whole populations being decimated by disease, destitution and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru came into contact with the outside world, 50% of their community succumbed within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community faced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—epidemiologically, any interaction might introduce sicknesses, and even the simplest ones might decimate them,” states a representative from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption could be very harmful to their way of life and well-being as a community.”

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