🔗 Share this article

A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny open space deep in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed sounds drawing near through the dense jungle.

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

“One person stood, directing using an arrow,” he states. “Somehow he noticed I was here and I started to escape.”

He ended up face to face the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbour to these wandering tribe, who reject contact with outsiders.

A new study by a advocacy organization claims exist no fewer than 196 described as “uncontacted groups” remaining globally. This tribe is believed to be the most numerous. The report says 50% of these tribes may be eliminated over the coming ten years should administrations don't do more actions to defend them.

It claims the biggest risks come from deforestation, digging or operations for crude. Isolated tribes are highly at risk to ordinary illness—consequently, it notes a risk is caused by exposure with proselytizers and online personalities in pursuit of attention.

Lately, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from locals.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of several households, located elevated on the banks of the Tauhamanu River deep within the Peruvian rainforest, half a day from the closest settlement by boat.

The area is not classified as a safeguarded reserve for uncontacted groups, and logging companies work here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be heard continuously, and the tribe members are witnessing their forest damaged and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, residents state they are divided. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess strong respect for their “relatives” residing in the forest and wish to defend them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we must not alter their culture. That's why we maintain our space,” explains Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the harm to the tribe's survival, the threat of aggression and the chance that deforestation crews might introduce the tribe to illnesses they have no defense to.

While we were in the village, the Mashco Piro made themselves known again. A young mother, a young mother with a young daughter, was in the jungle picking food when she detected them.

“We detected shouting, cries from people, many of them. As if there was a crowd yelling,” she informed us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she fled. Subsequently, her head was continually racing from anxiety.

“As exist loggers and firms cutting down the jungle they are fleeing, maybe out of fear and they end up close to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. That's what scares me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were attacked by the group while angling. A single person was struck by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the other person was located deceased subsequently with nine injuries in his body.

The administration maintains a policy of no engagement with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to start interactions with them.

The strategy began in a nearby nation subsequent to prolonged of lobbying by community representatives, who noted that first exposure with secluded communities resulted to whole populations being eliminated by sickness, poverty and starvation.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the broader society, 50% of their community succumbed within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua people experienced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any contact could transmit illnesses, and even the most common illnesses could decimate them,” explains a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or interference may be highly damaging to their existence and survival as a society.”

For the neighbours of {