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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny open space within in the of Peru rainforest when he detected movements coming closer through the lush jungle.

It dawned on him he was surrounded, and stood still.

“One person positioned, directing using an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he detected I was here and I commenced to run.”

He ended up encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbour to these nomadic people, who reject interaction with outsiders.

An updated document issued by a rights organisation states remain no fewer than 196 termed “uncontacted groups” left in the world. This tribe is considered to be the biggest. The study claims 50% of these tribes may be decimated in the next decade if governments don't do further measures to safeguard them.

It claims the biggest dangers stem from timber harvesting, digging or exploration for crude. Uncontacted groups are extremely at risk to common sickness—as such, the report says a risk is caused by exposure with religious missionaries and online personalities in pursuit of attention.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing hamlet of a handful of clans, sitting high on the shores of the local river deep within the of Peru jungle, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible village by boat.

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

Tomas reports that, at times, the noise of industrial tools can be noticed continuously, and the community are witnessing their forest damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, people report they are divided. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they also have strong admiration for their “kin” residing in the forest and want to defend them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we must not alter their traditions. That's why we keep our space,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of aggression and the likelihood that deforestation crews might subject the tribe to sicknesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a woman with a toddler child, was in the jungle collecting fruit when she heard them.

“We detected calls, sounds from others, numerous of them. As if it was a crowd shouting,” she shared with us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the tribe and she fled. Subsequently, her head was still racing from terror.

“Since operate loggers and companies destroying the jungle they're running away, perhaps out of fear and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they might react with us. This is what scares me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the group while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an bow to the gut. He recovered, but the second individual was located deceased days later with several arrow wounds in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a policy of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, making it prohibited to start encounters with them.

The strategy originated in Brazil following many years of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that initial interaction with secluded communities resulted to entire communities being wiped out by disease, poverty and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau community in Peru first encountered with the world outside, 50% of their community perished within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact may spread illnesses, and even the basic infections might decimate them,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference can be highly damaging to their way of life and well-being as a group.”

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