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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny clearing deep in the Peruvian jungle when he heard movements approaching through the dense woodland.

He realized that he had been surrounded, and froze.

“A single individual stood, pointing using an projectile,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he became aware I was here and I commenced to escape.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the small community of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a neighbour to these itinerant people, who shun interaction with strangers.

A new report issued by a rights organization claims there are a minimum of 196 termed “remote communities” left worldwide. The group is considered to be the biggest. The report says 50% of these groups might be eliminated in the next decade unless authorities fail to take further measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the most significant risks stem from logging, digging or operations for crude. Uncontacted groups are extremely vulnerable to basic disease—therefore, it says a danger is presented by contact with religious missionaries and online personalities in pursuit of engagement.

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

This settlement is a fishermen's village of several households, sitting elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, half a day from the most accessible town by watercraft.

The area is not recognised as a safeguarded area for isolated tribes, and timber firms work here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of industrial tools can be detected around the clock, and the tribe members are seeing their jungle disturbed and ruined.

Among the locals, inhabitants report they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold deep admiration for their “kin” residing in the jungle and want to protect them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we must not alter their traditions. For this reason we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the danger of aggression and the possibility that timber workers might expose the tribe to diseases they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a woman with a young girl, was in the woodland collecting produce when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, sounds from others, a large number of them. As though there were a large gathering yelling,” she informed us.

That was the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her head was persistently racing from terror.

“Since exist deforestation crews and operations clearing the woodland they're running away, possibly out of fear and they arrive near us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave with us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the group while catching fish. A single person was hit by an projectile to the gut. He survived, but the other man was located lifeless days later with nine injuries in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a approach of avoiding interaction with isolated people, rendering it forbidden to start contact with them.

This approach was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that initial interaction with isolated people resulted to whole populations being eliminated by disease, destitution and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the broader society, a significant portion of their population perished within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly susceptible—from a disease perspective, any interaction could spread sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses may eliminate them,” says a representative from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or intrusion can be very harmful to their way of life and survival as a society.”

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