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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest clearing deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard sounds drawing near through the thick forest.

It dawned on him that he stood hemmed in, and stood still.

“One stood, pointing using an arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he detected I was here and I started to run.”

He ended up confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbour to these itinerant people, who avoid contact with foreigners.

A recent report issued by a rights group states there are at least 196 termed “uncontacted groups” in existence worldwide. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the largest. The study claims 50% of these communities may be eliminated in the next decade if governments fail to take further to protect them.

The report asserts the biggest risks stem from logging, digging or drilling for crude. Isolated tribes are highly vulnerable to basic disease—as such, it says a threat is posed by contact with religious missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of engagement.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania more and more, according to residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of seven or eight households, perched elevated on the edges of the local river in the center of the of Peru rainforest, 10 hours from the most accessible settlement by canoe.

The area is not recognised as a protected reserve for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations operate here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their jungle damaged and devastated.

Among the locals, residents state they are divided. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they also possess deep regard for their “kin” residing in the forest and want to protect them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we can't modify their way of life. For this reason we preserve our space,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of aggression and the chance that timber workers might expose the community to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the community, the group made themselves known again. A young mother, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle gathering food when she detected them.

“We detected shouting, cries from people, numerous of them. As if there were a crowd shouting,” she shared with us.

That was the first instance she had come across the tribe and she escaped. Subsequently, her thoughts was continually racing from terror.

“As operate timber workers and companies clearing the jungle they are escaping, perhaps because of dread and they come in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they might react towards us. That's what frightens me.”

Recently, two individuals were attacked by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One man was struck by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the second individual was found lifeless after several days with multiple injuries in his physique.

The Peruvian government follows a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, making it forbidden to initiate interactions with them.

The strategy originated in the neighboring country after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who noted that first interaction with remote tribes lead to entire communities being decimated by disease, poverty and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in the country first encountered with the world outside, half of their community succumbed within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe suffered the same fate.

“Secluded communities are very susceptible—in terms of health, any interaction may introduce diseases, and even the basic infections could wipe them out,” says a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any contact or disruption could be very harmful to their existence and health as a society.”

For local residents of {