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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest clearing within in the Peruvian jungle when he detected movements coming closer through the lush woodland.

He became aware he was hemmed in, and froze.

“A single individual was standing, aiming with an projectile,” he states. “Somehow he detected of my presence and I began to escape.”

He ended up confronting the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbor to these wandering people, who avoid interaction with outsiders.

A new study from a human rights organisation indicates there are a minimum of 196 termed “uncontacted groups” remaining worldwide. This tribe is believed to be the most numerous. The study states 50% of these groups could be decimated in the next decade should administrations neglect to implement more measures to safeguard them.

It argues the most significant risks come from logging, extraction or drilling for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly vulnerable to ordinary illness—consequently, it says a threat is caused by contact with religious missionaries and online personalities seeking clicks.

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

Nueva Oceania is a angling hamlet of several clans, located high on the shores of the Tauhamanu River deep within the of Peru rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible settlement by boat.

This region is not recognised as a preserved reserve for uncontacted groups, and logging companies function here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be heard around the clock, and the tribe members are observing their jungle damaged and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, residents say they are torn. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold strong regard for their “kin” dwelling in the woodland and wish to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we can't modify their way of life. For this reason we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the tribe's survival, the danger of aggression and the possibility that loggers might expose the tribe to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the settlement, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the jungle gathering produce when she heard them.

“We heard calls, sounds from individuals, many of them. Like there was a whole group shouting,” she informed us.

It was the initial occasion she had come across the group and she fled. An hour later, her head was persistently racing from terror.

“Since exist deforestation crews and companies destroying the woodland they are escaping, possibly out of fear and they end up close to us,” she explained. “We don't know what their response may be towards us. This is what scares me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the group while fishing. A single person was struck by an bow to the stomach. He recovered, but the second individual was found dead after several days with multiple puncture marks in his physique.

The Peruvian government has a approach of no engagement with secluded communities, establishing it as illegal to initiate encounters with them.

The strategy began in Brazil following many years of lobbying by community representatives, who saw that initial exposure with remote tribes could lead to whole populations being wiped out by illness, poverty and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the world outside, 50% of their community perished within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the same fate.

“Remote tribes are highly at risk—in terms of health, any exposure might spread illnesses, and even the most common illnesses could wipe them out,” says Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any contact or disruption could be very harmful to their life and well-being as a group.”

For local residents of {