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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a modest glade deep in the Peruvian Amazon when he detected movements coming closer through the dense jungle.

He realized he was surrounded, and halted.

“A single individual positioned, pointing using an projectile,” he states. “Unexpectedly he detected I was here and I started to escape.”

He ended up encountering members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the small community of Nueva Oceania—served as practically a neighbor to these nomadic individuals, who avoid engagement with foreigners.

An updated study by a human rights organization states remain no fewer than 196 termed “remote communities” remaining globally. This tribe is thought to be the biggest. The report states a significant portion of these groups could be wiped out within ten years if governments fail to take additional actions to defend them.

The report asserts the greatest dangers come from deforestation, extraction or exploration for oil. Remote communities are exceptionally at risk to ordinary sickness—therefore, the study notes a threat is caused by contact with proselytizers and online personalities looking for engagement.

In recent times, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania increasingly, based on accounts from residents.

The village is a fishermen's community of seven or eight clans, perched elevated on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway deep within the Peruvian jungle, half a day from the most accessible town by canoe.

The area is not classified as a preserved area for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations operate here.

Tomas says that, at times, the sound of logging machinery can be detected day and night, and the community are observing their woodland disrupted and ruined.

Among the locals, people say they are conflicted. They fear the projectiles but they also have strong regard for their “kin” who live in the jungle and wish to defend them.

“Allow them to live in their own way, we can't change their culture. For this reason we maintain our space,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are worried about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the threat of violence and the likelihood that timber workers might expose the Mashco Piro to diseases they have no resistance to.

At the time in the community, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia Rodriguez Lopez, a young mother with a two-year-old daughter, was in the forest collecting fruit when she detected them.

“We detected calls, cries from others, numerous of them. As if it was a crowd shouting,” she informed us.

It was the first instance she had encountered the tribe and she fled. Subsequently, her mind was continually pounding from anxiety.

“Since there are timber workers and companies clearing the forest they are escaping, maybe out of fear and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain how they might react towards us. This is what frightens me.”

Recently, two loggers were assaulted by the group while fishing. A single person was hit by an bow to the abdomen. He survived, but the other man was located lifeless subsequently with multiple arrow wounds in his body.

The Peruvian government maintains a approach of no engagement with secluded communities, making it illegal to initiate contact with them.

This approach originated in a nearby nation following many years of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who noted that initial exposure with isolated people lead to entire groups being decimated by illness, destitution and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru came into contact with the world outside, half of their people perished within a short period. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are extremely at risk—in terms of health, any contact could spread sicknesses, and even the basic infections might wipe them out,” explains a representative from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any exposure or intrusion may be extremely detrimental to their way of life and well-being as a society.”

For those living nearby of {