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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he detected footsteps approaching through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him he was surrounded, and halted.

“One person positioned, aiming using an projectile,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected I was here and I began to run.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—was practically a local to these itinerant tribe, who shun contact with outsiders.

A recent report from a advocacy organisation claims exist a minimum of 196 described as “uncontacted groups” left in the world. This tribe is considered to be the largest. The report says half of these groups could be eliminated in the next decade should administrations fail to take further actions to defend them.

It claims the greatest risks come from deforestation, extraction or operations for crude. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to ordinary illness—consequently, the report states a threat is presented by contact with proselytizers and digital content creators in pursuit of clicks.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to residents.

This settlement is a fishing community of seven or eight clans, sitting elevated on the shores of the local river deep within the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the nearest settlement by watercraft.

The area is not recognised as a protected area for remote communities, and deforestation operations work here.

Tomas reports that, sometimes, the sound of industrial tools can be noticed around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their woodland disturbed and ruined.

Within the village, inhabitants state they are torn. They fear the tribal weapons but they hold profound regard for their “relatives” residing in the woodland and desire to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we must not alter their culture. This is why we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the tribe's survival, the threat of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might introduce the community to illnesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the community, the group appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a resident with a two-year-old girl, was in the jungle picking food when she heard them.

“There were cries, cries from people, many of them. As if it was a large gathering shouting,” she informed us.

It was the first instance she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. An hour later, her head was persistently throbbing from fear.

“Because exist loggers and companies cutting down the jungle they are escaping, possibly because of dread and they end up near us,” she said. “We don't know what their response may be with us. This is what scares me.”

In 2022, two individuals were confronted by the group while catching fish. One was hit by an projectile to the gut. He lived, but the other person was discovered deceased days later with nine injuries in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as forbidden to commence interactions with them.

The policy originated in Brazil following many years of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who noted that first exposure with isolated people resulted to whole populations being eliminated by illness, poverty and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country first encountered with the outside world, a significant portion of their population perished within a few years. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly vulnerable—epidemiologically, any exposure could transmit diseases, and including the simplest ones may eliminate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any contact or disruption could be extremely detrimental to their life and survival as a group.”

For those living nearby of {