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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small clearing within in the Peruvian jungle when he heard footsteps drawing near through the lush forest.

He realized he was surrounded, and froze.

“A single individual stood, aiming with an projectile,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected I was here and I began to run.”

He had come confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the modest community of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these itinerant people, who reject contact with outsiders.

An updated document by a rights organisation claims there are at least 196 described as “isolated tribes” left worldwide. The group is believed to be the largest. The report says 50% of these groups may be eliminated in the next decade should administrations fail to take further measures to safeguard them.

It argues the most significant risks stem from logging, digging or exploration for oil. Remote communities are extremely at risk to basic illness—therefore, the study notes a threat is caused by exposure with proselytizers and online personalities in pursuit of clicks.

Recently, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of several clans, located elevated on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the closest town by canoe.

The area is not designated as a safeguarded zone for uncontacted groups, and logging companies operate here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of industrial tools can be detected day and night, and the community are witnessing their forest disturbed and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants report they are divided. They dread the tribal weapons but they hold deep admiration for their “relatives” residing in the jungle and desire to protect them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we are unable to alter their traditions. That's why we preserve our separation,” says Tomas.

Residents in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the danger of violence and the chance that loggers might expose the tribe to diseases they have no immunity to.

At the time in the village, the tribe made themselves known again. A young mother, a young mother with a toddler daughter, was in the forest collecting fruit when she heard them.

“We detected cries, cries from people, many of them. As if it was a large gathering shouting,” she informed us.

This marked the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she fled. After sixty minutes, her head was still pounding from fear.

“Since exist loggers and companies clearing the woodland they're running away, possibly due to terror and they come near us,” she said. “It is unclear how they will behave towards us. This is what scares me.”

Recently, a pair of timber workers were attacked by the tribe while catching fish. One man was hit by an projectile to the stomach. He recovered, but the other man was discovered lifeless days later with nine puncture marks in his body.

Authorities in Peru maintains a strategy of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, establishing it as prohibited to initiate contact with them.

The policy was first adopted in Brazil after decades of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who observed that first interaction with isolated people could lead to entire communities being decimated by sickness, hardship and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the world outside, 50% of their community succumbed within a matter of years. A decade later, the Muruhanua tribe experienced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are highly at risk—epidemiologically, any interaction could introduce illnesses, and including the basic infections may eliminate them,” says Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “In cultural terms, any contact or interference could be extremely detrimental to their life and survival as a society.”

For those living nearby of {