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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny glade within in the Peruvian jungle when he detected movements drawing near through the lush jungle.

It dawned on him that he had been surrounded, and halted.

“One person stood, aiming with an arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he noticed I was here and I commenced to run.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a local to these itinerant people, who shun engagement with outsiders.

An updated study by a rights organisation claims exist no fewer than 196 of what it calls “remote communities” remaining in the world. This tribe is considered to be the biggest. The study states 50% of these groups might be decimated within ten years if governments fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the most significant threats come from logging, digging or operations for crude. Isolated tribes are exceptionally at risk to ordinary disease—therefore, the study states a danger is caused by interaction with proselytizers and online personalities looking for engagement.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's village of a handful of clans, perched elevated on the banks of the Tauhamanu River deep within the of Peru jungle, half a day from the most accessible town by boat.

This region is not designated as a preserved area for uncontacted groups, and logging companies work here.

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their woodland damaged and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, people say they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have strong respect for their “brothers” dwelling in the woodland and want to protect them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we are unable to change their way of life. That's why we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the danger of violence and the chance that loggers might introduce the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the village, the group made themselves known again. A young mother, a woman with a young child, was in the woodland gathering food when she detected them.

“We heard shouting, shouts from people, many of them. As if there were a whole group yelling,” she informed us.

It was the first instance she had met the group and she escaped. An hour later, her head was still throbbing from anxiety.

“As operate timber workers and companies destroying the forest they're running away, perhaps because of dread and they end up near us,” she said. “We don't know what their response may be to us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while fishing. One was struck by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the second individual was discovered lifeless after several days with multiple puncture marks in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to commence interactions with them.

This approach began in the neighboring country following many years of lobbying by community representatives, who observed that first contact with remote tribes could lead to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, destitution and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their population succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are very susceptible—in terms of health, any exposure could introduce illnesses, and even the most common illnesses may wipe them out,” states Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or interference may be very harmful to their life and survival as a community.”

For local residents of {