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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a modest glade within in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed sounds coming closer through the thick forest.

He realized that he stood encircled, and halted.

“One person positioned, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he became aware that I was present and I commenced to escape.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbour to these wandering people, who reject engagement with strangers.

A recent report by a advocacy group indicates there are no fewer than 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” in existence in the world. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the biggest. The report says a significant portion of these tribes may be wiped out within ten years if governments fail to take more to protect them.

It claims the biggest dangers are from logging, digging or operations for oil. Remote communities are exceptionally vulnerable to ordinary sickness—therefore, the study says a risk is caused by contact with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators looking for attention.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from locals.

This settlement is a fishing community of a handful of families, located elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the Peruvian rainforest, 10 hours from the nearest village by canoe.

The area is not classified as a safeguarded reserve for uncontacted groups, and logging companies operate here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard continuously, and the community are seeing their forest damaged and ruined.

Among the locals, residents state they are divided. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess profound admiration for their “brothers” dwelling in the jungle and want to defend them.

“Let them live as they live, we can't modify their culture. For this reason we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the community's way of life, the threat of violence and the possibility that deforestation crews might subject the community to illnesses they have no resistance to.

While we were in the settlement, the tribe appeared again. Letitia, a young mother with a toddler daughter, was in the forest gathering food when she detected them.

“There were calls, shouts from others, many of them. As if there was a large gathering yelling,” she informed us.

It was the initial occasion she had met the Mashco Piro and she ran. After sixty minutes, her head was still racing from anxiety.

“Since exist timber workers and operations destroying the jungle they are fleeing, possibly due to terror and they come near us,” she stated. “We are uncertain what their response may be towards us. That's what scares me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were assaulted by the group while fishing. One man was struck by an arrow to the gut. He lived, but the other person was discovered dead after several days with several puncture marks in his body.

The Peruvian government maintains a policy of non-contact with isolated people, making it illegal to start contact with them.

The strategy was first adopted in a nearby nation subsequent to prolonged of lobbying by community representatives, who noted that first exposure with isolated people resulted to entire groups being wiped out by sickness, hardship and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the broader society, half of their community succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are highly at risk—epidemiologically, any exposure might spread illnesses, and even the simplest ones might wipe them out,” says Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or interference could be very harmful to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

For local residents of {