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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade within in the of Peru jungle when he noticed footsteps approaching through the lush woodland.

It dawned on him he was hemmed in, and halted.

“One stood, aiming with an arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he noticed that I was present and I started to run.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these wandering tribe, who avoid engagement with strangers.

A recent document by a human rights organisation claims remain no fewer than 196 termed “isolated tribes” left globally. The group is considered to be the biggest. The study says half of these communities might be wiped out within ten years unless authorities neglect to implement additional to protect them.

It argues the biggest threats stem from deforestation, mining or exploration for petroleum. Isolated tribes are highly at risk to basic illness—as such, the report says a risk is posed by contact with religious missionaries and social media influencers seeking attention.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from inhabitants.

Nueva Oceania is a fishing community of several families, sitting high on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the of Peru Amazon, 10 hours from the most accessible settlement by watercraft.

This region is not classified as a preserved reserve for isolated tribes, and timber firms function here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the racket of industrial tools can be heard day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their woodland disturbed and destroyed.

Within the village, residents say they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they also have profound respect for their “relatives” who live in the jungle and want to defend them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we must not modify their traditions. This is why we keep our space,” states Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the damage to the tribe's survival, the danger of aggression and the likelihood that timber workers might expose the tribe to illnesses they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a resident with a two-year-old daughter, was in the jungle gathering food when she heard them.

“We detected cries, cries from individuals, many of them. Like there was a large gathering shouting,” she informed us.

This marked the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she fled. An hour later, her mind was continually throbbing from terror.

“As exist timber workers and firms cutting down the forest they're running away, maybe out of fear and they come close to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they will behave to us. That is the thing that scares me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while catching fish. One man was hit by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the other man was found deceased after several days with multiple injuries in his physique.

The administration maintains a strategy of no engagement with remote tribes, rendering it illegal to start contact with them.

The policy was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of campaigning by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that first exposure with secluded communities lead to entire groups being decimated by sickness, poverty and hunger.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country came into contact with the world outside, half of their community perished within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua community faced the same fate.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very at risk—epidemiologically, any exposure could transmit illnesses, and including the most common illnesses may decimate them,” states a representative from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any contact or disruption may be highly damaging to their way of life and survival as a society.”

For those living nearby of {