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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a small glade within in the of Peru Amazon when he noticed sounds drawing near through the dense jungle.

It dawned on him he was surrounded, and froze.

“A single individual positioned, pointing with an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he became aware of my presence and I commenced to flee.”

He ended up confronting the Mashco Piro tribe. For decades, Tomas—who lives in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as virtually a neighbour to these itinerant tribe, who avoid engagement with outsiders.

A new report issued by a human rights group states remain no fewer than 196 termed “isolated tribes” left worldwide. The Mashco Piro is thought to be the most numerous. The report states a significant portion of these tribes might be decimated over the coming ten years if governments neglect to implement further measures to safeguard them.

It claims the biggest threats stem from timber harvesting, mining or exploration for oil. Remote communities are highly susceptible to common disease—as such, the report states a risk is posed by exposure with religious missionaries and online personalities in pursuit of engagement.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been appearing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by residents.

Nueva Oceania is a fishermen's community of a handful of clans, located high on the banks of the local river in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, half a day from the nearest town by watercraft.

This region is not classified as a safeguarded reserve for isolated tribes, and deforestation operations work here.

According to Tomas that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be noticed day and night, and the community are observing their jungle disturbed and devastated.

Among the locals, people report they are divided. They fear the projectiles but they also possess strong regard for their “brothers” who live in the jungle and wish to safeguard them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we can't modify their way of life. That's why we preserve our distance,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the community's way of life, the risk of conflict and the chance that deforestation crews might introduce the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the village, the tribe appeared again. Letitia, a resident with a toddler child, was in the forest picking produce when she noticed them.

“We heard calls, sounds from others, numerous of them. Like there was a crowd yelling,” she informed us.

This marked the first time she had met the tribe and she ran. An hour later, her mind was still pounding from fear.

“As operate deforestation crews and companies cutting down the jungle they are escaping, maybe because of dread and they end up near us,” she explained. “It is unclear how they might react with us. That's what terrifies me.”

Recently, two individuals were confronted by the tribe while catching fish. A single person was wounded by an projectile to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other man was discovered dead subsequently with multiple injuries in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a policy of no engagement with secluded communities, establishing it as illegal to commence interactions with them.

The policy began in a nearby nation after decades of lobbying by community representatives, who saw that first contact with remote tribes resulted to whole populations being wiped out by illness, poverty and malnutrition.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the world outside, half of their community succumbed within a few years. During the 1990s, the Muruhanua people suffered the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are very at risk—in terms of health, any contact may transmit illnesses, and even the most common illnesses might wipe them out,” says Issrail Aquisse from a local advocacy organization. “Culturally too, any interaction or disruption can be very harmful to their way of life and health as a society.”

For those living nearby of {