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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small open space deep in the of Peru jungle when he heard sounds drawing near through the dense forest.

He became aware that he stood surrounded, and halted.

“A single individual stood, directing using an projectile,” he remembers. “And somehow he noticed that I was present and I began to flee.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—residing in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbor to these wandering people, who shun engagement with strangers.

A new study issued by a human rights group claims exist a minimum of 196 described as “uncontacted groups” remaining globally. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the largest. The study claims 50% of these communities might be wiped out over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take additional to protect them.

It argues the biggest dangers come from timber harvesting, mining or exploration for oil. Uncontacted groups are highly at risk to basic disease—as such, the report states a danger is presented by interaction with proselytizers and digital content creators looking for attention.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from residents.

The village is a angling village of seven or eight families, located atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu River deep within the of Peru jungle, a ten-hour journey from the closest town by boat.

The territory is not designated as a preserved area for uncontacted groups, and timber firms work here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their forest disturbed and ruined.

Within the village, residents say they are divided. They fear the tribal weapons but they also possess profound respect for their “relatives” dwelling in the forest and wish to defend them.

“Let them live as they live, we are unable to change their way of life. This is why we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the community's way of life, the risk of aggression and the likelihood that deforestation crews might subject the community to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the village, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. Letitia, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the woodland gathering produce when she detected them.

“There were shouting, cries from people, many of them. As though there was a large gathering shouting,” she shared with us.

That was the first instance she had come across the Mashco Piro and she ran. After sixty minutes, her mind was continually pounding from anxiety.

“Since there are timber workers and operations cutting down the woodland they're running away, perhaps due to terror and they come in proximity to us,” she said. “It is unclear how they will behave towards us. That's what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, two loggers were assaulted by the group while angling. One was wounded by an bow to the stomach. He recovered, but the other man was found lifeless days later with multiple injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a strategy of no engagement with isolated people, making it illegal to start interactions with them.

The policy originated in a nearby nation following many years of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who saw that initial exposure with isolated people lead to whole populations being wiped out by illness, destitution and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru made initial contact with the world outside, 50% of their community perished within a few years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very susceptible—in terms of health, any exposure might introduce diseases, and even the basic infections could eliminate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any contact or interference can be highly damaging to their life and survival as a community.”

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