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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny clearing within in the of Peru Amazon when he detected sounds approaching through the lush forest.

He realized that he stood hemmed in, and halted.

“One stood, aiming with an bow and arrow,” he remembers. “Somehow he detected of my presence and I began to escape.”

He ended up face to face members of the Mashco Piro. For decades, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny settlement of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a local to these nomadic tribe, who reject contact with foreigners.

A new report from a human rights organisation indicates there are a minimum of 196 of what it calls “uncontacted groups” left in the world. This tribe is thought to be the largest. It claims 50% of these communities might be wiped out in the next decade unless authorities don't do more to protect them.

It argues the greatest risks stem from deforestation, mining or drilling for petroleum. Isolated tribes are extremely susceptible to common disease—as such, the study notes a danger is caused by contact with evangelical missionaries and online personalities looking for clicks.

Lately, members of the tribe have been coming to Nueva Oceania with greater frequency, as reported by residents.

The village is a angling community of several households, sitting atop on the banks of the Tauhamanu River in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest, 10 hours from the closest town by canoe.

The area is not designated as a protected area for uncontacted groups, and logging companies operate here.

Tomas reports that, sometimes, the racket of logging machinery can be heard around the clock, and the tribe members are observing their jungle damaged and devastated.

Among the locals, inhabitants state they are divided. They fear the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess deep admiration for their “brothers” dwelling in the forest and want to defend them.

“Permit them to live according to their traditions, we must not modify their traditions. For this reason we maintain our space,” explains Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the destruction to the tribe's survival, the danger of violence and the possibility that timber workers might expose the community to illnesses they have no immunity to.

During a visit in the settlement, the group appeared again. A young mother, a young mother with a two-year-old girl, was in the forest picking food when she heard them.

“We detected calls, sounds from individuals, a large number of them. As if there was a large gathering calling out,” she told us.

This marked the first instance she had met the group and she escaped. Subsequently, her head was continually throbbing from fear.

“Since operate deforestation crews and firms cutting down the woodland they're running away, perhaps due to terror and they end up in proximity to us,” she stated. “We don't know what their response may be towards us. That's what scares me.”

Recently, two loggers were assaulted by the group while catching fish. One was wounded by an bow to the gut. He lived, but the other person was discovered lifeless subsequently with several injuries in his physique.

The administration has a approach of avoiding interaction with remote tribes, making it prohibited to initiate interactions with them.

This approach began in Brazil after decades of advocacy by community representatives, who observed that initial exposure with isolated people resulted to entire communities being eliminated by illness, destitution and malnutrition.

In the 1980s, when the Nahau community in Peru first encountered with the outside world, a significant portion of their people perished within a short period. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community faced the same fate.

“Secluded communities are very at risk—in terms of health, any interaction may introduce illnesses, and even the most common illnesses might wipe them out,” states an advocate from a tribal support group. “Culturally too, any interaction or interference could be very harmful to their life and survival as a community.”

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