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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small open space far in the of Peru jungle when he heard sounds approaching through the thick forest.

He became aware that he had been hemmed in, and froze.

“One person positioned, pointing with an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Unexpectedly he detected that I was present and I began to run.”

He found himself confronting the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these nomadic people, who shun engagement with strangers.

An updated document by a advocacy group states remain no fewer than 196 described as “remote communities” remaining globally. This tribe is thought to be the most numerous. The report says a significant portion of these groups might be decimated over the coming ten years if governments fail to take more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the most significant dangers stem from timber harvesting, mining or exploration for oil. Remote communities are extremely susceptible to common sickness—therefore, the study notes a threat is posed by exposure with evangelical missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of attention.

Lately, members of the tribe have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, based on accounts from inhabitants.

The village is a fishermen's hamlet of a handful of households, sitting elevated on the banks of the local river in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, a ten-hour journey from the closest village by canoe.

The territory is not classified as a protected zone for remote communities, and logging companies work here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the noise of industrial tools can be heard around the clock, and the Mashco Piro people are observing their forest disrupted and destroyed.

Within the village, people say they are torn. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess profound regard for their “brothers” who live in the woodland and desire to defend them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we are unable to modify their traditions. That's why we maintain our space,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the tribe's survival, the threat of violence and the possibility that deforestation crews might subject the tribe to diseases they have no defense to.

While we were in the village, the group made themselves known again. Letitia, a resident with a young girl, was in the woodland gathering fruit when she heard them.

“We detected calls, sounds from others, many of them. As though there were a whole group calling out,” she shared with us.

It was the first instance she had come across the tribe and she ran. After sixty minutes, her head was still throbbing from fear.

“Since exist timber workers and firms clearing the woodland they are escaping, perhaps due to terror and they come near us,” she said. “We don't know what their response may be with us. That is the thing that frightens me.”

Recently, two individuals were confronted by the Mashco Piro while angling. A single person was struck by an arrow to the gut. He survived, but the other man was located deceased after several days with multiple puncture marks in his body.

The administration follows a approach of non-contact with remote tribes, rendering it prohibited to initiate encounters with them.

This approach originated in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by community representatives, who observed that initial exposure with isolated people lead to entire communities being eliminated by sickness, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the world outside, 50% of their community died within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua people suffered the same fate.

“Secluded communities are extremely susceptible—from a disease perspective, any contact could introduce sicknesses, and even the simplest ones could decimate them,” states an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or disruption could be very harmful to their life and health as a group.”

For local residents of {