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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard sounds coming closer through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him he was encircled, and halted.

“A single individual stood, aiming using an arrow,” he remembers. “And somehow he noticed that I was present and I began to run.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a neighbour to these wandering people, who avoid contact with strangers.

A recent document by a rights organisation states remain a minimum of 196 termed “uncontacted groups” remaining worldwide. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the biggest. The study states a significant portion of these groups could be eliminated over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the most significant dangers are from logging, mining or exploration for petroleum. Isolated tribes are highly susceptible to common illness—as such, it says a threat is presented by contact with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of attention.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, based on accounts from inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's village of several households, sitting high on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the most accessible settlement by watercraft.

This region is not recognised as a protected area for isolated tribes, and timber firms work here.

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

In Nueva Oceania, people report they are divided. They dread the projectiles but they also possess strong regard for their “brothers” dwelling in the woodland and wish to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we are unable to change their traditions. That's why we preserve our space,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the likelihood that loggers might subject the tribe to illnesses they have no immunity to.

At the time in the community, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a young girl, was in the woodland collecting produce when she heard them.

“There were calls, cries from individuals, numerous of them. As if there was a large gathering calling out,” she informed us.

This marked the initial occasion she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was continually throbbing from anxiety.

“Since operate deforestation crews and operations cutting down the jungle they are fleeing, maybe due to terror and they come close to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain what their response may be to us. That's what scares me.”

In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the tribe while fishing. One was wounded by an arrow to the gut. He lived, but the other man was discovered dead after several days with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

The administration follows a policy of non-contact with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to start interactions with them.

This approach originated in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by community representatives, who observed that early contact with secluded communities lead to whole populations being wiped out by disease, destitution and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in the country made initial contact with the outside world, 50% of their population succumbed within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the same fate.

“Secluded communities are highly vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any contact may introduce diseases, and even the basic infections might eliminate them,” explains a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any contact or disruption can be extremely detrimental to their existence and well-being as a group.”

For those living nearby of {