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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest open space within in the of Peru Amazon when he detected movements approaching through the lush forest.

He realized he was surrounded, and halted.

“One person was standing, pointing with an projectile,” he remembers. “Somehow he became aware I was here and I commenced to flee.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these wandering people, who shun interaction with outsiders.

A recent report by a rights group indicates exist a minimum of 196 termed “remote communities” in existence globally. The group is thought to be the most numerous. The study says a significant portion of these groups could be decimated in the next decade unless authorities don't do further to protect them.

It argues the biggest threats are from logging, digging or operations for petroleum. Remote communities are highly susceptible to ordinary illness—as such, the study states a danger is presented by exposure with proselytizers and online personalities seeking attention.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing village of seven or eight households, sitting high on the banks of the Tauhamanu River deep within the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible settlement by watercraft.

The territory is not classified as a safeguarded area for remote communities, and logging companies function here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be heard around the clock, and the tribe members are observing their woodland disturbed and destroyed.

Within the village, residents state they are divided. They fear the projectiles but they hold strong admiration for their “relatives” dwelling in the jungle and want to protect them.

“Let them live in their own way, we can't change their way of life. For this reason we maintain our distance,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the tribe's survival, the risk of violence and the likelihood that deforestation crews might introduce the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no defense to.

At the time in the settlement, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia, a resident with a two-year-old child, was in the woodland picking food when she noticed them.

“We heard cries, cries from people, numerous of them. As if it was a large gathering shouting,” she shared with us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the group and she fled. An hour later, her head was continually racing from anxiety.

“Because operate deforestation crews and operations cutting down the jungle they're running away, perhaps because of dread and they come near us,” she stated. “It is unclear how they will behave with us. This is what terrifies me.”

Recently, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while angling. One man was hit by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the other person was located deceased days later with several arrow wounds in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a policy of non-contact with remote tribes, making it forbidden to commence encounters with them.

The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country subsequent to prolonged of advocacy by community representatives, who saw that initial contact with remote tribes resulted to entire communities being eliminated by illness, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their community succumbed within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the same fate.

“Remote tribes are highly susceptible—epidemiologically, any exposure could transmit illnesses, and even the most common illnesses may eliminate them,” says an advocate from a tribal support group. “In cultural terms, any exposure or interference could be highly damaging to their existence and well-being as a society.”

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