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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small clearing deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed footsteps drawing near through the dense woodland.

He became aware that he stood encircled, and stood still.

“One person was standing, directing with an projectile,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he noticed that I was present and I started to escape.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—residing in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a local to these wandering individuals, who avoid contact with strangers.

A recent study from a rights organization claims exist a minimum of 196 described as “uncontacted groups” remaining in the world. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the largest. The study claims a significant portion of these tribes may be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities don't do more to protect them.

The report asserts the biggest risks stem from logging, mining or drilling for petroleum. Isolated tribes are extremely at risk to ordinary sickness—therefore, it notes a threat is caused by contact with religious missionaries and online personalities looking for engagement.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by inhabitants.

This settlement is a angling hamlet of seven or eight families, located atop on the edges of the local river in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the closest settlement by boat.

This region is not recognised as a preserved area for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations work here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their woodland disturbed and ruined.

Within the village, people state they are torn. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold strong admiration for their “brothers” residing in the jungle and wish to defend them.

“Let them live in their own way, we are unable to modify their traditions. That's why we keep our separation,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might expose the community to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the village, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia, a woman with a young child, was in the jungle collecting fruit when she heard them.

“We heard cries, sounds from others, many of them. Like there were a crowd calling out,” she informed us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the group and she escaped. An hour later, her thoughts was persistently pounding from terror.

“Because there are deforestation crews and companies destroying the forest they are fleeing, possibly because of dread and they end up near us,” she explained. “We don't know how they will behave with us. This is what frightens me.”

Recently, two loggers were confronted by the tribe while angling. A single person was struck by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was found dead subsequently with several puncture marks in his body.

The administration has a policy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, making it illegal to commence contact with them.

The policy was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who saw that initial exposure with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being eliminated by illness, destitution and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country made initial contact with the broader society, 50% of their population succumbed within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely vulnerable—from a disease perspective, any interaction might introduce diseases, and even the most common illnesses might decimate them,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any exposure or disruption may be very harmful to their way of life and health as a group.”

For local residents of {