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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest clearing deep in the of Peru jungle when he heard movements approaching through the dense jungle.

He became aware that he stood surrounded, and halted.

“One person stood, pointing using an projectile,” he remembers. “And somehow he became aware of my presence and I started to escape.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the small community of Nueva Oceania—was almost a local to these nomadic tribe, who reject engagement with strangers.

An updated study by a advocacy organisation states there are no fewer than 196 termed “uncontacted groups” in existence globally. This tribe is believed to be the biggest. The report claims half of these groups may be wiped out over the coming ten years if governments don't do more actions to defend them.

It claims the greatest dangers stem from timber harvesting, mining or operations for petroleum. Remote communities are highly susceptible to ordinary sickness—consequently, it says a threat is posed by interaction with religious missionaries and online personalities seeking attention.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by residents.

This settlement is a fishing community of several households, sitting elevated on the edges of the local river in the center of the of Peru Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible village by canoe.

The territory is not designated as a safeguarded reserve for uncontacted groups, and logging companies work here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of industrial tools can be noticed continuously, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their forest damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents say they are divided. They are afraid of the projectiles but they also possess strong respect for their “relatives” dwelling in the jungle and want to protect them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we must not alter their traditions. For this reason we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the threat of violence and the chance that deforestation crews might expose the tribe to illnesses they have no defense to.

While we were in the settlement, the group appeared again. Letitia, a resident with a young child, was in the woodland gathering food when she noticed them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from others, many of them. As though there was a large gathering shouting,” she told us.

That was the first time she had come across the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her head was still pounding from anxiety.

“Because there are loggers and operations clearing the woodland they are escaping, perhaps due to terror and they come in proximity to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they might react to us. This is what scares me.”

Recently, two individuals were attacked by the Mashco Piro while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an arrow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the second individual was discovered deceased days later with several injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government has a approach of no engagement with secluded communities, establishing it as prohibited to initiate contact with them.

The policy originated in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who saw that first contact with isolated people resulted to entire communities being eliminated by disease, destitution and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country first encountered with the broader society, a significant portion of their people succumbed within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua community faced the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—from a disease perspective, any interaction could introduce diseases, and including the most common illnesses could decimate them,” states an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any interaction or disruption may be very harmful to their life and survival as a community.”

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