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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small clearing within in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed sounds approaching through the thick jungle.

He realized that he had been surrounded, and halted.

“One was standing, aiming with an projectile,” he recalls. “And somehow he became aware I was here and I began to run.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the small village of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these wandering tribe, who shun contact with strangers.

A recent study issued by a advocacy group claims remain at least 196 described as “uncontacted groups” left in the world. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the largest. The study states a significant portion of these tribes might be wiped out over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take additional actions to defend them.

It argues the most significant threats come from logging, mining or exploration for crude. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally susceptible to ordinary disease—as such, the report says a risk is presented by interaction with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of clicks.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by inhabitants.

This settlement is a angling hamlet of seven or eight clans, perched elevated on the banks of the local river in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the most accessible village by watercraft.

This region is not recognised as a protected zone for remote communities, and timber firms work here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the racket of logging machinery can be detected continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their jungle damaged and ruined.

Among the locals, residents report they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they also possess strong respect for their “relatives” who live in the jungle and wish to protect them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we can't change their culture. That's why we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of conflict and the chance that deforestation crews might expose the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the village, the group made their presence felt again. A young mother, a resident with a two-year-old child, was in the woodland gathering food when she detected them.

“We detected cries, sounds from individuals, many of them. As though there was a crowd calling out,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she escaped. An hour later, her head was persistently throbbing from anxiety.

“As there are loggers and operations cutting down the woodland they are escaping, possibly due to terror and they end up in proximity to us,” she said. “We don't know how they will behave to us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two loggers were attacked by the tribe while fishing. A single person was hit by an bow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the second individual was located dead subsequently with multiple injuries in his frame.

Authorities in Peru has a approach of avoiding interaction with secluded communities, making it prohibited to commence encounters with them.

This approach was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that first interaction with isolated people could lead to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, hardship and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru made initial contact with the outside world, 50% of their population perished within a short period. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people faced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely susceptible—epidemiologically, any exposure may transmit diseases, and even the basic infections might eliminate them,” explains an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or intrusion can be highly damaging to their life and survival as a society.”

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