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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a tiny glade deep in the Peruvian jungle when he detected sounds approaching through the thick jungle.

He became aware he was hemmed in, and froze.

“One was standing, aiming with an arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he noticed I was here and I commenced to escape.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a neighbor to these nomadic people, who reject interaction with foreigners.

An updated document by a human rights group indicates remain no fewer than 196 described as “uncontacted groups” left worldwide. This tribe is considered to be the largest. The study says half of these communities could be eliminated in the next decade should administrations neglect to implement additional measures to safeguard them.

It argues the most significant risks stem from deforestation, digging or drilling for oil. Remote communities are extremely susceptible to common illness—therefore, the study says a threat is caused by exposure with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers looking for engagement.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by locals.

The village is a fishing hamlet of a handful of households, perched elevated on the shores of the local river deep within the of Peru jungle, 10 hours from the closest village by canoe.

The area is not designated as a safeguarded area for remote communities, and logging companies function here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be noticed around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their woodland disturbed and devastated.

Within the village, people state they are conflicted. They fear the tribal weapons but they hold profound admiration for their “brothers” who live in the jungle and want to protect them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we must not change their culture. That's why we keep our distance,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the tribe's survival, the risk of aggression and the possibility that timber workers might subject the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the village, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia, a resident with a toddler daughter, was in the forest picking produce when she noticed them.

“We heard cries, shouts from others, numerous of them. As if there was a crowd yelling,” she shared with us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the group and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her head was still racing from terror.

“Since there are deforestation crews and companies cutting down the forest they are fleeing, perhaps out of fear and they arrive close to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they might react with us. That's what scares me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the Mashco Piro while fishing. One man was hit by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was discovered dead subsequently with nine arrow wounds in his physique.

Authorities in Peru has a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it forbidden to start contact with them.

This approach was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that first interaction with remote tribes lead to entire communities being decimated by disease, poverty and malnutrition.

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

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely vulnerable—epidemiologically, any contact may spread diseases, and including the simplest ones may eliminate them,” states a representative from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any exposure or disruption may be extremely detrimental to their life and well-being as a community.”

For those living nearby of {