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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade deep in the of Peru Amazon when he noticed movements coming closer through the thick woodland.

He became aware he was encircled, and halted.

“A single individual was standing, pointing with an arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he noticed that I was present and I commenced to run.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a neighbour to these nomadic people, who reject interaction with strangers.

A recent report from a human rights organisation states remain a minimum of 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” in existence worldwide. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the biggest. The study says 50% of these communities may be decimated over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take additional actions to defend them.

It argues the biggest threats are from logging, mining or exploration for oil. Remote communities are exceptionally at risk to common illness—consequently, the report states a danger is posed by contact with religious missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to locals.

This settlement is a fishing village of seven or eight families, perched atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the closest settlement by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a preserved area for uncontacted groups, and timber firms operate here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected around the clock, and the community are witnessing their jungle disrupted and destroyed.

Within the village, people report they are conflicted. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they also possess profound admiration for their “relatives” residing in the woodland and want to protect them.

“Let them live in their own way, we can't modify their culture. This is why we keep our space,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the community's way of life, the threat of violence and the possibility that deforestation crews might introduce the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no immunity to.

At the time in the community, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler girl, was in the jungle gathering fruit when she detected them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from individuals, many of them. Like it was a crowd shouting,” she told us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the tribe and she fled. After sixty minutes, her head was continually racing from terror.

“Since there are loggers and firms cutting down the forest they are escaping, perhaps because of dread and they end up close to us,” she stated. “We don't know what their response may be to us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the Mashco Piro while angling. A single person was struck by an arrow to the gut. He survived, but the other person was found lifeless subsequently with several arrow wounds in his physique.

The Peruvian government has a approach of no engagement with isolated people, rendering it prohibited to start interactions with them.

The strategy originated in the neighboring country after decades of lobbying by community representatives, who observed that early exposure with isolated people lead to whole populations being wiped out by disease, poverty and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the broader society, 50% of their community succumbed within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are highly susceptible—from a disease perspective, any exposure could introduce sicknesses, and including the basic infections may wipe them out,” states a representative from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or interference can be very harmful to their life and survival as a group.”

For local residents of {