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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small clearing far in the of Peru jungle when he heard footsteps drawing near through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him he was surrounded, and froze.

“One person positioned, directing using an bow and arrow,” he states. “And somehow he became aware that I was present and I commenced to escape.”

He had come encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the small village of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a local to these wandering individuals, who shun interaction with outsiders.

An updated document issued by a advocacy organization states remain a minimum of 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” left worldwide. The group is considered to be the most numerous. It claims 50% of these communities might be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities neglect to implement additional measures to safeguard them.

It claims the greatest dangers are from timber harvesting, extraction or drilling for crude. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally susceptible to common sickness—consequently, it says a threat is presented by exposure with proselytizers and digital content creators in pursuit of engagement.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by inhabitants.

This settlement is a angling community of seven or eight households, sitting atop on the banks of the local river in the center of the Peruvian jungle, 10 hours from the nearest settlement by boat.

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

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the tribe members are seeing their forest disturbed and destroyed.

Within the village, inhabitants report they are torn. They dread the projectiles but they also possess deep respect for their “relatives” who live in the forest and wish to protect them.

“Let them live in their own way, we must not modify their traditions. That's why we keep our space,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of aggression and the possibility that deforestation crews might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. A young mother, a resident with a young daughter, was in the woodland gathering fruit when she noticed them.

“We heard cries, sounds from people, many of them. As if there were a large gathering calling out,” she told us.

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

“Since exist timber workers and firms clearing the forest they're running away, maybe because of dread and they arrive near us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they will behave to us. That's what terrifies me.”

Recently, two loggers were attacked by the group while fishing. A single person was struck by an arrow to the gut. He survived, but the other person was located dead after several days with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

The Peruvian government maintains a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it prohibited to start contact with them.

This approach began in Brazil after decades of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that early contact with secluded communities resulted to entire groups being decimated by disease, hardship and starvation.

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

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact could introduce diseases, and even the basic infections could decimate them,” says Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any exposure or intrusion could be extremely detrimental to their way of life and well-being as a community.”

For those living nearby of {