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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small open space far in the of Peru jungle when he heard sounds coming closer through the dense forest.

He realized that he stood surrounded, and stood still.

“One was standing, aiming with an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he detected of my presence and I commenced to run.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a local to these wandering individuals, who avoid contact with outsiders.

An updated study from a human rights organisation states exist at least 196 termed “uncontacted groups” left in the world. The group is thought to be the largest. It says 50% of these tribes could be wiped out over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take further to protect them.

The report asserts the greatest risks stem from deforestation, extraction or drilling for crude. Isolated tribes are extremely susceptible to ordinary sickness—as such, the study states a risk is posed by exposure with proselytizers and digital content creators seeking attention.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by locals.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing community of several clans, sitting atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway in the center of the Peruvian Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the nearest village by watercraft.

The territory is not recognised as a protected area for uncontacted groups, and timber firms operate here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the racket of heavy equipment can be noticed around the clock, and the community are observing their forest damaged and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, residents say they are divided. They are afraid of the Mashco Piro's arrows but they hold profound respect for their “kin” who live in the jungle and want to protect them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we must not alter their culture. For this reason we keep our space,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the tribe's survival, the risk of violence and the likelihood that loggers might expose the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a toddler daughter, was in the forest collecting fruit when she detected them.

“We heard calls, cries from others, many of them. As if there was a whole group shouting,” she informed us.

That was the first time she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she fled. After sixty minutes, her mind was continually racing from fear.

“Because operate timber workers and companies destroying the woodland they are fleeing, maybe because of dread and they come near us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they might react with us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One man was hit by an projectile to the abdomen. He survived, but the other man was located lifeless after several days with several injuries in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as prohibited to initiate contact with them.

The strategy began in Brazil subsequent to prolonged of campaigning by community representatives, who observed that early exposure with secluded communities resulted to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in the country first encountered with the broader society, half of their community died within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely vulnerable—in terms of health, any contact could transmit diseases, and even the simplest ones may decimate them,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or intrusion may be highly damaging to their life and well-being as a society.”

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