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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a tiny glade far in the of Peru Amazon when he heard sounds approaching through the dense woodland.

He became aware that he stood hemmed in, and stood still.

“One positioned, aiming using an bow and arrow,” he states. “And somehow he became aware of my presence and I began to run.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbor to these wandering people, who avoid interaction with foreigners.

A new report by a advocacy group claims remain no fewer than 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” remaining worldwide. The group is thought to be the biggest. It says 50% of these tribes could be decimated within ten years unless authorities fail to take additional measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the biggest threats are from logging, mining or operations for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely at risk to ordinary illness—therefore, the report says a danger is posed by exposure with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers seeking attention.

Recently, members of the tribe have been venturing to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to residents.

This settlement is a fishing village of seven or eight families, located high on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, 10 hours from the closest settlement by boat.

This region is not classified as a safeguarded zone for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations function here.

Tomas reports that, sometimes, the sound of logging machinery can be noticed day and night, and the tribe members are observing their jungle disrupted and destroyed.

Within the village, people state they are conflicted. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong admiration for their “kin” who live in the jungle and want to protect them.

“Let them live as they live, we are unable to modify their traditions. This is why we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of violence and the likelihood that loggers might expose the tribe to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the village, the tribe made themselves known again. A young mother, a woman with a two-year-old child, was in the woodland picking fruit when she heard them.

“We heard calls, sounds from people, numerous of them. As if there were a large gathering calling out,” she informed us.

That was the initial occasion she had encountered the tribe and she fled. Subsequently, her thoughts was continually pounding from fear.

“Because there are loggers and firms cutting down the jungle they're running away, maybe because of dread and they come close to us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they will behave to us. That is the thing that scares me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the Mashco Piro while catching fish. One man was hit by an projectile to the gut. He lived, but the other man was located deceased after several days with several puncture marks in his physique.

The administration has a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to commence encounters with them.

The strategy originated in the neighboring country after decades of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who saw that early interaction with remote tribes resulted to entire groups being eliminated by illness, hardship and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country first encountered with the outside world, half of their people died within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people suffered the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—from a disease perspective, any interaction could introduce diseases, and even the most common illnesses could wipe them out,” states a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference could be extremely detrimental to their existence and health as a society.”

For local residents of {