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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small open space within in the Peruvian Amazon when he noticed movements coming closer through the dense woodland.

He realized that he stood surrounded, and froze.

“A single individual was standing, directing using an bow and arrow,” he states. “Somehow he detected I was here and I began to escape.”

He ended up encountering the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the small village of Nueva Oceania—had been practically a neighbor to these nomadic people, who avoid interaction with foreigners.

A recent report issued by a advocacy organization claims exist no fewer than 196 termed “uncontacted groups” in existence in the world. The group is thought to be the largest. The report says 50% of these communities could be eliminated over the coming ten years unless authorities fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the greatest threats come from timber harvesting, digging or exploration for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally vulnerable to ordinary illness—therefore, the report says a risk is posed by interaction with religious missionaries and online personalities seeking clicks.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing village of a handful of households, sitting high on the edges of the Tauhamanu River deep within the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the nearest settlement by boat.

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

Tomas says that, at times, the noise of industrial tools can be detected day and night, and the community are seeing their forest damaged and ruined.

Among the locals, people say they are divided. They fear the projectiles but they also have profound respect for their “kin” dwelling in the forest and want to defend them.

“Let them live as they live, we can't change their way of life. This is why we keep our separation,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of conflict and the likelihood that deforestation crews might expose the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the community, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a toddler girl, was in the jungle collecting fruit when she detected them.

“We detected shouting, shouts from people, numerous of them. Like it was a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

This marked the initial occasion she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she ran. Subsequently, her mind was persistently racing from fear.

“Since exist loggers and operations cutting down the jungle they're running away, possibly due to terror and they come in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That's what terrifies me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the Mashco Piro while angling. A single person was wounded by an bow to the stomach. He survived, but the second individual was found lifeless subsequently with nine arrow wounds in his body.

The administration maintains a policy of non-contact with remote tribes, making it illegal to initiate interactions with them.

The strategy began in Brazil following many years of campaigning by community representatives, who noted that initial contact with secluded communities resulted to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, poverty and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in the country first encountered with the outside world, half of their people perished within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe faced the similar destiny.

“Secluded communities are highly vulnerable—in terms of health, any interaction might introduce sicknesses, and even the basic infections might wipe them out,” says Issrail Aquisse from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any interaction or disruption may be very harmful to their existence and survival as a community.”

For those living nearby of {