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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest open space far in the Peruvian jungle when he noticed movements coming closer through the thick forest.

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

“One positioned, directing using an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he noticed that I was present and I began to run.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the small village of Nueva Oceania—was almost a neighbor to these nomadic people, who avoid contact with foreigners.

An updated document by a rights organization indicates remain no fewer than 196 termed “remote communities” left worldwide. The Mashco Piro is considered to be the biggest. The study says 50% of these groups might be eliminated over the coming ten years if governments fail to take more to protect them.

It claims the greatest risks come from timber harvesting, extraction or exploration for crude. Uncontacted groups are exceptionally vulnerable to ordinary sickness—therefore, the report says a risk is caused by exposure with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of clicks.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by locals.

This settlement is a fishing hamlet of a handful of clans, perched atop on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the of Peru rainforest, half a day from the nearest village by canoe.

This region is not designated as a preserved area for remote communities, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of heavy equipment can be heard day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their jungle disturbed and destroyed.

In Nueva Oceania, residents say they are torn. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also have strong respect for their “relatives” who live in the woodland and desire to protect them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not change their culture. For this reason we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the community's way of life, the danger of conflict and the possibility that timber workers might expose the community to illnesses they have no immunity to.

While we were in the village, the group appeared again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a two-year-old child, was in the jungle collecting fruit when she heard them.

“We heard shouting, sounds from people, numerous of them. As though there was a whole group yelling,” she informed us.

It was the first instance she had met the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her thoughts was persistently throbbing from terror.

“As there are deforestation crews and companies clearing the woodland they are escaping, possibly because of dread and they come near us,” she explained. “We are uncertain how they might react with us. This is what frightens me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while fishing. A single person was hit by an bow to the gut. He recovered, but the other man was found lifeless subsequently with nine arrow wounds in his physique.

The administration has a strategy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, making it illegal to initiate contact with them.

The strategy began in the neighboring country following many years of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who noted that early contact with isolated people could lead to entire groups being wiped out by disease, poverty and hunger.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru first encountered with the outside world, half of their people succumbed within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are highly susceptible—epidemiologically, any contact could spread diseases, and even the basic infections might eliminate them,” states an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any interaction or intrusion may be very harmful to their life and survival as a community.”

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