🔗 Share this article

A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest clearing far in the of Peru Amazon when he heard sounds drawing near through the dense forest.

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

“One person was standing, directing using an arrow,” he recalls. “And somehow he noticed I was here and I started to escape.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the small community of Nueva Oceania—was virtually a local to these wandering tribe, who shun contact with foreigners.

A recent report issued by a rights organisation indicates remain no fewer than 196 termed “uncontacted groups” remaining in the world. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the largest. The report says a significant portion of these communities may be decimated over the coming ten years if governments neglect to implement more actions to defend them.

The report asserts the most significant risks come from timber harvesting, mining or drilling for petroleum. Remote communities are highly vulnerable to basic illness—as such, it states a threat is caused by contact with proselytizers and online personalities looking for clicks.

Recently, Mashco Piro people have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, as reported by residents.

This settlement is a fishing community of a handful of households, perched high on the shores of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the of Peru Amazon, half a day from the most accessible village by canoe.

This region is not designated as a preserved area for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations operate here.

According to Tomas that, sometimes, the noise of logging machinery can be heard continuously, and the community are seeing their woodland damaged and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants say they are divided. They are afraid of the projectiles but they hold strong regard for their “relatives” dwelling in the forest and want to protect them.

“Allow them to live according to their traditions, we are unable to alter their way of life. This is why we preserve our distance,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the harm to the tribe's survival, the danger of violence and the chance that loggers might subject the tribe to sicknesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the settlement, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a woman with a young daughter, was in the jungle gathering produce when she heard them.

“There were shouting, sounds from individuals, numerous of them. Like there were a crowd shouting,” she informed us.

This marked the initial occasion she had encountered the group and she fled. After sixty minutes, her mind was continually throbbing from anxiety.

“Since there are loggers and companies cutting down the woodland they're running away, possibly out of fear and they arrive near us,” she said. “We don't know how they might react towards us. That's what frightens me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One man was hit by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was located lifeless after several days with nine puncture marks in his frame.

The administration has a policy of no engagement with secluded communities, rendering it illegal to initiate interactions with them.

This approach was first adopted in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by indigenous rights groups, who noted that early exposure with remote tribes resulted to whole populations being decimated by illness, destitution and starvation.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in the country came into contact with the broader society, 50% of their population succumbed within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua community suffered the identical outcome.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are highly at risk—in terms of health, any exposure might introduce sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses could eliminate them,” explains an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any exposure or disruption could be highly damaging to their life and health as a community.”

For local residents of {