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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny glade far in the Peruvian Amazon when he heard sounds approaching through the dense woodland.

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

“A single individual positioned, pointing using an bow and arrow,” he recalls. “Unexpectedly he became aware of my presence and I started to escape.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro tribe. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the modest settlement of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a neighbor to these itinerant tribe, who avoid engagement with strangers.

A new document issued by a rights organization claims remain no fewer than 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” remaining in the world. This tribe is considered to be the biggest. The report says a significant portion of these tribes might be decimated in the next decade should administrations neglect to implement more actions to defend them.

It argues the most significant risks are from deforestation, digging or drilling for petroleum. Uncontacted groups are highly susceptible to basic sickness—therefore, the report says a danger is presented by interaction with religious missionaries and digital content creators in pursuit of clicks.

In recent times, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by locals.

This settlement is a angling hamlet of seven or eight households, sitting atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu waterway in the heart of the of Peru rainforest, 10 hours from the most accessible town by watercraft.

The territory is not recognised as a safeguarded area for isolated tribes, and logging companies work here.

Tomas reports that, on occasion, the racket of heavy equipment can be detected continuously, and the community are witnessing their forest damaged and destroyed.

Among the locals, people report they are torn. They dread the tribal weapons but they also possess deep regard for their “brothers” residing in the jungle and want to safeguard them.

“Permit them to live in their own way, we can't alter their traditions. This is why we preserve our space,” states Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the destruction to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of conflict and the possibility that loggers might subject the community to sicknesses they have no defense to.

While we were in the settlement, the group made their presence felt again. Letitia, a woman with a toddler child, was in the jungle gathering fruit when she detected them.

“We heard calls, cries from others, many of them. As if there was a whole group yelling,” she told us.

That was the first instance she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she ran. An hour later, her mind was still throbbing from anxiety.

“Because exist loggers and operations cutting down the woodland they are fleeing, possibly due to terror and they end up in proximity to us,” she explained. “It is unclear what their response may be towards us. This is what frightens me.”

Recently, two loggers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One man was struck by an projectile to the abdomen. He recovered, but the other man was discovered lifeless days later with multiple injuries in his body.

Authorities in Peru follows a approach of no engagement with secluded communities, establishing it as illegal to start contact with them.

The strategy was first adopted in a nearby nation following many years of lobbying by community representatives, who saw that initial contact with secluded communities resulted to entire communities being decimated by disease, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru came into contact with the outside world, half of their population died within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people experienced the similar destiny.

“Isolated indigenous peoples are very vulnerable—epidemiologically, any interaction might spread sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses could decimate them,” states a representative from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any contact or intrusion can be extremely detrimental to their way of life and health as a community.”

For those living nearby of {