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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small clearing deep in the Peruvian jungle when he heard movements coming closer through the thick woodland.

He became aware he was surrounded, and stood still.

“A single individual stood, pointing using an arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he noticed I was here and I began to flee.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the small village of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbor to these itinerant people, who reject interaction with outsiders.

An updated report by a human rights organization states there are a minimum of 196 termed “remote communities” remaining worldwide. The group is thought to be the biggest. It states a significant portion of these tribes might be eliminated within ten years unless authorities don't do more measures to safeguard them.

It argues the most significant dangers stem from deforestation, extraction or operations for crude. Isolated tribes are extremely susceptible to ordinary sickness—as such, it states a risk is posed by interaction with proselytizers and digital content creators in pursuit of attention.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from locals.

The village is a angling hamlet of a handful of clans, perched elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu River deep within the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the closest town by watercraft.

The area is not recognised as a safeguarded area for uncontacted groups, and timber firms function here.

Tomas reports that, at times, the noise of logging machinery can be heard day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their jungle damaged and destroyed.

Within the village, residents state they are torn. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they also have profound regard for their “relatives” who live in the jungle and desire to safeguard them.

“Let them live as they live, we can't change their way of life. That's why we maintain our distance,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the danger of violence and the chance that loggers might expose the community to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the community, the tribe made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a two-year-old daughter, was in the woodland collecting food when she heard them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from individuals, many of them. Like there was a large gathering calling out,” she shared with us.

It was the initial occasion she had met the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was continually racing from fear.

“Since operate timber workers and operations clearing the forest they're running away, maybe out of fear and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “It is unclear how they will behave towards us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the group while fishing. A single person was struck by an arrow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the second individual was located lifeless subsequently with nine arrow wounds in his frame.

The administration has a policy of non-contact with isolated people, establishing it as forbidden to commence encounters with them.

The strategy was first adopted in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who observed that initial contact with secluded communities lead to entire communities being decimated by disease, destitution and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country made initial contact with the outside world, a significant portion of their people died within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people suffered the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—in terms of health, any interaction could spread illnesses, and even the basic infections could decimate them,” says a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or disruption may be very harmful to their life and health as a community.”

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