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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a small glade within in the Peruvian Amazon when he detected sounds drawing near through the lush woodland.

He realized he was encircled, and halted.

“A single individual was standing, directing using an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he became aware I was here and I began to escape.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these wandering people, who shun interaction with strangers.

A recent study by a rights group states exist a minimum of 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” remaining in the world. This tribe is believed to be the largest. The study states 50% of these tribes may be eliminated over the coming ten years if governments don't do further actions to defend them.

It argues the greatest threats are from timber harvesting, extraction or operations for oil. Uncontacted groups are extremely susceptible to ordinary disease—consequently, the report says a danger is caused by contact with proselytizers and online personalities seeking engagement.

Recently, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to residents.

The village is a fishing village of a handful of families, located high on the shores of the local river in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the closest village by watercraft.

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

Tomas reports that, at times, the noise of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the tribe members are witnessing their woodland disrupted and ruined.

Among the locals, people state they are divided. They fear the projectiles but they also have profound regard for their “relatives” who live in the forest and desire to defend them.

“Let them live in their own way, we must not modify their traditions. That's why we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of conflict and the chance that timber workers might introduce the tribe to illnesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the settlement, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia, a resident with a toddler daughter, was in the woodland picking fruit when she detected them.

“We heard shouting, shouts from people, a large number of them. Like there were a large gathering calling out,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had met the group and she fled. Subsequently, her mind was continually racing from fear.

“Since there are loggers and operations clearing the forest they're running away, perhaps because of dread and they come in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, two loggers were assaulted by the Mashco Piro while catching fish. One was wounded by an projectile to the gut. He recovered, but the other person was found lifeless days later with nine puncture marks in his physique.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of non-contact with remote tribes, rendering it prohibited to commence interactions with them.

The strategy began in Brazil following many years of campaigning by community representatives, who observed that early exposure with remote tribes resulted to whole populations being decimated by disease, destitution and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their community died within a short period. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua tribe faced the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are extremely at risk—in terms of health, any contact may transmit diseases, and even the simplest ones might decimate them,” explains a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any contact or disruption can be very harmful to their life and health as a society.”

For local residents of {