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Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest open space far in the Peruvian jungle when he heard sounds approaching through the lush forest.

It dawned on him he was surrounded, and froze.

“One person stood, directing using an arrow,” he recalls. “Somehow he detected of my presence and I commenced to escape.”

He had come encountering members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—residing in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a neighbour to these itinerant individuals, who avoid interaction with outsiders.

A new document by a human rights organisation states exist no fewer than 196 described as “uncontacted groups” left in the world. The group is thought to be the most numerous. The study states 50% of these tribes may be wiped out in the next decade if governments neglect to implement further measures to safeguard them.

The report asserts the greatest risks are from deforestation, mining or operations for oil. Remote communities are highly susceptible to basic sickness—consequently, it says a danger is posed by interaction with religious missionaries and online personalities looking for engagement.

Lately, Mashco Piro people have been venturing to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, according to inhabitants.

This settlement is a fishermen's community of seven or eight families, located high on the shores of the local river in the center of the of Peru jungle, 10 hours from the closest settlement by watercraft.

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

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of industrial tools can be detected continuously, and the community are observing their woodland disturbed and ruined.

Among the locals, people report they are torn. They are afraid of the projectiles but they hold deep admiration for their “brothers” who live in the forest and want to protect them.

“Permit them to live as they live, we must not modify their traditions. This is why we keep our space,” says Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the community's way of life, the threat of conflict and the likelihood that deforestation crews might expose the community to sicknesses they have no defense to.

During a visit in the community, the tribe appeared again. A young mother, a resident with a two-year-old child, was in the forest gathering food when she noticed them.

“There were cries, shouts from others, many of them. As if it was a whole group calling out,” she informed us.

This marked the first time she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she fled. An hour later, her thoughts was still pounding from fear.

“Because operate deforestation crews and firms clearing the woodland they're running away, perhaps out of fear and they arrive in proximity to us,” she said. “We are uncertain what their response may be with us. That is the thing that terrifies me.”

Two years ago, a pair of timber workers were confronted by the Mashco Piro while angling. A single person was hit by an arrow to the abdomen. He survived, but the other person was found dead subsequently with nine arrow wounds in his physique.

The administration maintains a strategy of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, establishing it as prohibited to start contact with them.

This approach originated in Brazil after decades of advocacy by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that first contact with secluded communities lead to entire communities being wiped out by disease, poverty and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau people in the country came into contact with the outside world, half of their population succumbed within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community experienced the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are very vulnerable—epidemiologically, any exposure may spread illnesses, and including the most common illnesses could eliminate them,” states an advocate from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “Culturally too, any interaction or intrusion could be very harmful to their existence and survival as a community.”

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