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Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny open space far in the of Peru rainforest when he noticed movements coming closer through the lush forest.

It dawned on him that he stood encircled, and froze.

“A single individual stood, pointing with an projectile,” he remembers. “And somehow he noticed I was here and I began to escape.”

He had come encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the small settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these nomadic individuals, who avoid contact with outsiders.

A new report by a rights group claims there are at least 196 described as “isolated tribes” in existence worldwide. This tribe is thought to be the most numerous. The study states 50% of these groups might be eliminated over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take further to protect them.

It argues the greatest threats come from logging, extraction or operations for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are extremely vulnerable to common sickness—therefore, it says a risk is posed by contact with evangelical missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by locals.

This settlement is a fishing village of several families, located high on the shores of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, 10 hours from the nearest town by canoe.

The area is not designated as a safeguarded area for isolated tribes, and timber firms work here.

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be detected around the clock, and the community are witnessing their woodland disrupted and destroyed.

Within the village, people say they are conflicted. They dread the tribal weapons but they hold profound respect for their “kin” residing in the jungle and want to safeguard them.

“Allow them to live as they live, we must not modify their culture. This is why we preserve our space,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the tribe's survival, the danger of aggression 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. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a young girl, was in the jungle collecting fruit when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, sounds from people, a large number of them. As though there were a large gathering shouting,” she informed us.

That was the first time she had come across the group and she ran. An hour later, her thoughts was continually racing from anxiety.

“Since there are deforestation crews and operations cutting down the forest they are escaping, possibly out of fear and they arrive close to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they might react to us. This is what frightens me.”

Two years ago, two individuals were confronted by the tribe while fishing. A single person was struck by an projectile to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was found lifeless subsequently with multiple injuries in his body.

The administration has a approach of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, establishing it as illegal to initiate contact with them.

This approach was first adopted in the neighboring country following many years of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who observed that early interaction with isolated people could lead to whole populations being decimated by sickness, hardship and starvation.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in the country first encountered with the outside world, 50% of their people succumbed within a matter of years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the identical outcome.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—epidemiologically, any exposure might spread sicknesses, and including the simplest ones may eliminate them,” says an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or intrusion may be very harmful to their existence and survival as a community.”

For those living nearby of {