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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny clearing within in the of Peru rainforest when he heard sounds coming closer through the dense jungle.

He became aware that he had been surrounded, and froze.

“One person positioned, pointing using an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he noticed that I was present and I began to run.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbour to these wandering individuals, who shun engagement with outsiders.

A new document by a advocacy group indicates exist no fewer than 196 of what it calls “remote communities” remaining worldwide. This tribe is considered to be the largest. The report claims half of these groups could be decimated within ten years unless authorities neglect to implement additional actions to defend them.

It claims the most significant dangers come from timber harvesting, digging or operations for petroleum. Remote communities are exceptionally vulnerable to common disease—consequently, the report states a danger is posed by exposure with evangelical missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by residents.

The village is a angling village of several households, perched elevated on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the nearest settlement by boat.

The territory is not recognised as a safeguarded reserve for remote communities, and deforestation operations operate here.

According to Tomas that, at times, the noise of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the tribe members are witnessing their forest disrupted and devastated.

Among the locals, inhabitants state they are conflicted. They are afraid of the tribal weapons but they hold strong respect for their “kin” dwelling in the jungle and want to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we can't alter their traditions. For this reason we maintain our space,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the community's way of life, the threat of aggression and the chance that timber workers might subject the community to diseases they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the village, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia, a resident with a two-year-old daughter, was in the woodland picking produce when she detected them.

“We heard cries, cries from individuals, a large number of them. As if it was a whole group yelling,” she informed us.

This marked the first instance she had encountered the tribe and she escaped. After sixty minutes, her head was continually throbbing from anxiety.

“As there are loggers and operations clearing the forest they are escaping, possibly due to terror and they end up in proximity to us,” she stated. “We are uncertain how they will behave with us. That's what terrifies me.”

Recently, two individuals were attacked by the tribe while angling. A single person was struck by an bow to the abdomen. He recovered, but the second individual was discovered lifeless after several days with several injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government has a strategy of non-contact with isolated people, making it forbidden to commence encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in Brazil after decades of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who noted that first contact with secluded communities resulted to whole populations being wiped out by disease, hardship and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country came into contact with the outside world, 50% of their community succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—in terms of health, any exposure might introduce diseases, and including the simplest ones may wipe them out,” states a representative from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any interaction or intrusion could be highly damaging to their existence and survival as a society.”

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