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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest glade far in the of Peru jungle when he heard sounds approaching through the dense jungle.

It dawned on him that he stood surrounded, and froze.

“One positioned, pointing with an arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he detected that I was present and I began to run.”

He ended up confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbor to these wandering tribe, who reject interaction with foreigners.

A new report from a human rights organization claims exist no fewer than 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” in existence worldwide. The group is considered to be the largest. It states half of these tribes could be wiped out in the next decade if governments neglect to implement additional actions to defend them.

It argues the greatest dangers are from deforestation, mining or drilling for oil. Uncontacted groups are highly vulnerable to common illness—therefore, the report says a threat is caused by exposure with proselytizers and digital content creators in pursuit of attention.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to locals.

This settlement is a angling village of several clans, located high on the banks of the local river in the center of the Peruvian Amazon, half a day from the most accessible settlement by boat.

The territory is not designated as a protected area for remote communities, and logging companies operate here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the racket of industrial tools can be noticed around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their jungle damaged and devastated.

Among the locals, residents report they are conflicted. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess profound admiration for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and wish to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we are unable to modify their traditions. For this reason we maintain our separation,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the risk of violence and the possibility that loggers might subject the tribe to diseases they have no resistance to.

While we were in the community, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a young mother with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle picking food when she detected them.

“We detected shouting, cries from others, a large number of them. As though there was a whole group yelling,” she told us.

It was the first instance she had come across the group and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her thoughts was still racing from terror.

“As there are loggers and operations cutting down the woodland they're running away, possibly due to terror and they end up in proximity to us,” she said. “We don't know how they will behave with us. This is what terrifies me.”

In 2022, two individuals were confronted by the group while fishing. One man was hit by an arrow to the gut. He lived, but the second individual was found dead days later with several arrow wounds in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a approach of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it illegal to start encounters with them.

This approach originated in a nearby nation after decades of campaigning by community representatives, who noted that early exposure with secluded communities lead to entire communities being wiped out by sickness, destitution and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country made initial contact with the world outside, half of their people succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are extremely vulnerable—epidemiologically, any contact could introduce diseases, and including the basic infections might decimate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or interference may be extremely detrimental to their existence and health as a group.”

For local residents of {