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Tomas Anez Dos Santos was laboring in a small open space far in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed footsteps drawing near through the dense woodland.

It dawned on him that he had been encircled, and froze.

“One positioned, pointing using an projectile,” he states. “And somehow he detected of my presence and I started to run.”

He found himself face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbour to these wandering tribe, who reject engagement with outsiders.

A new study by a human rights organisation claims there are at least 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” remaining globally. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the biggest. It states half of these communities could be wiped out within ten years should administrations fail to take more actions to defend them.

It claims the most significant threats stem from logging, extraction or drilling for crude. Remote communities are extremely susceptible to common sickness—consequently, it states a danger is posed by interaction with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators looking for attention.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to inhabitants.

The village is a angling hamlet of several clans, sitting high on the shores of the local river in the center of the of Peru jungle, half a day from the closest village by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a safeguarded reserve for remote communities, and logging companies function here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of industrial tools can be heard continuously, and the community are seeing their forest damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, residents say they are torn. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong regard for their “relatives” dwelling in the jungle and wish to protect them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we can't modify their way of life. That's why we maintain our space,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of conflict and the possibility that deforestation crews might introduce the community to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the settlement, the group made themselves known again. A young mother, a woman with a toddler child, was in the jungle picking produce when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, sounds from individuals, many of them. As though it was a crowd calling out,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had met the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her mind was continually racing from terror.

“Since exist timber workers and firms clearing the jungle they're running away, possibly due to terror and they come in proximity to us,” she explained. “We don't know how they might react with us. That's what scares me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while angling. One man was struck by an bow to the abdomen. He survived, but the other person was found dead days later with several puncture marks in his frame.

The Peruvian government has a policy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, making it forbidden to start interactions with them.

The policy began in a nearby nation subsequent to prolonged of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who saw that first contact with remote tribes lead to entire communities being eliminated by disease, hardship and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the outside world, half of their population perished within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe faced the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are highly vulnerable—in terms of health, any contact might transmit sicknesses, and including the simplest ones could eliminate them,” states a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or intrusion could be highly damaging to their life and well-being as a group.”

For local residents of {