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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny clearing far in the Peruvian rainforest when he noticed sounds drawing near through the lush woodland.

It dawned on him that he had been hemmed in, and stood still.

“One stood, aiming using an arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he detected of my presence and I began to run.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—who lives in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—was practically a neighbour to these wandering people, who avoid engagement with foreigners.

An updated document by a rights organisation indicates there are at least 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” in existence in the world. This tribe is considered to be the biggest. It claims a significant portion of these tribes could be wiped out in the next decade should administrations don't do further actions to defend them.

The report asserts the most significant risks are from deforestation, mining or operations for oil. Isolated tribes are extremely at risk to basic sickness—therefore, it says a threat is caused by exposure with evangelical missionaries and social media influencers in pursuit of attention.

In recent times, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by residents.

The village is a fishing community of seven or eight households, perched atop on the shores of the local river in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the nearest village by canoe.

The territory is not classified as a safeguarded reserve for isolated tribes, and logging companies operate here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the racket of industrial tools can be noticed around the clock, and the community are seeing their forest damaged and ruined.

Within the village, residents state they are divided. They dread the tribal weapons but they also possess deep regard for their “kin” who live in the jungle and wish to protect them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we can't change their way of life. For this reason we keep our distance,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the community's way of life, the danger of aggression and the likelihood that loggers might introduce the Mashco Piro to sicknesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the settlement, the Mashco Piro appeared again. A young mother, a woman with a young girl, was in the jungle gathering produce when she detected them.

“We heard cries, cries from others, a large number of them. Like it was a whole group shouting,” she told us.

That was the initial occasion she had met the Mashco Piro and she ran. Subsequently, her mind was continually pounding from terror.

“Since exist loggers and operations cutting down the forest they're running away, perhaps because of dread and they end up in proximity to us,” she explained. “We don't know how they will behave to us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the tribe while fishing. One was struck by an bow to the stomach. He survived, but the other person was located deceased days later with several arrow wounds in his physique.

Authorities in Peru has a policy of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, making it illegal to initiate contact with them.

The policy originated in a nearby nation after decades of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that initial interaction with isolated people lead to whole populations being decimated by sickness, destitution and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in the country came into contact with the outside world, half of their community perished within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the same fate.

“Secluded communities are very at risk—from a disease perspective, any contact might introduce illnesses, and even the simplest ones could decimate them,” explains an advocate from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any contact or intrusion could be very harmful to their life and health as a society.”

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