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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest open space within in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard footsteps drawing near through the dense jungle.

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

“One was standing, aiming with an arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected that I was present and I started to run.”

He ended up confronting members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbor to these itinerant individuals, who reject contact with strangers.

A recent study from a rights organisation indicates there are a minimum of 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” remaining in the world. This tribe is believed to be the most numerous. The study states a significant portion of these tribes may be wiped out over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take additional actions to defend them.

The report asserts the greatest threats are from deforestation, mining or operations for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely at risk to ordinary disease—consequently, the report says a risk is caused by contact with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers looking for attention.

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

Nueva Oceania is a fishing hamlet of several clans, perched atop on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the most accessible village by canoe.

The area is not classified as a preserved area for remote communities, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the community are observing their woodland disturbed and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants state they are conflicted. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess deep admiration for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and desire to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we must not alter their traditions. This is why we maintain our distance,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of aggression and the possibility that deforestation crews might subject the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no defense to.

At the time in the community, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler child, was in the jungle gathering food when she noticed them.

“We detected cries, shouts from people, a large number of them. As though it was a large gathering calling out,” she informed us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the group and she escaped. An hour later, her mind was continually pounding from terror.

“Since there are timber workers and operations cutting down the woodland they are fleeing, possibly because of dread and they arrive close to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they might react to us. This is what scares me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the tribe while angling. One was struck by an arrow to the gut. He lived, but the other person was located dead days later with several puncture marks in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, making it illegal to initiate encounters with them.

This approach began in Brazil after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who observed that early interaction with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being wiped out by disease, destitution and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the broader society, a significant portion of their people succumbed within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—epidemiologically, any exposure may introduce sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses may wipe them out,” says an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “In cultural terms, any exposure or interference can be very harmful to their life and health as a society.”

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