New Delhi: The Mashco Piro, or the Cujareño people, are believed to be the largest uncontacted indigenous tribe in the world, with over 750 individuals inhabiting the remote regions of the Amazon rainforest. After the tribe was enslaved and forced to work during the 1880s rubber boom, these nomadic hunter-gatherers avoided contact with anyone not from their tribe.
However, a few days ago, a video showing the Mashco Piro people emerging from their remote abode went viral on social media. Survival International, a human rights organisation that campaigns for the rights of Indigenous and tribal peoples and uncontacted people, released the video.
What did the video reveal?
The visuals showed the Mashco Piro on a riverbank outside their territory.
FENAMAD, a group created by indigenous communities to rally for their rights, said that increased logging in the Peruvian part of the rainforest, where this tribe resides, has driven them out of their traditional lands, threatening their food sources and safety.
Now spotted near logging concessions, the tribe seldom appears in front of outsiders and avoids communication with anyone except its people. They live in an area located between two natural reserves, but in recent days, around 70 Mashco Piro people have been spotted outside their territory.
In the video released by Survival International, they accused Canales Tahuamanu, a logging company claiming to be sustainable and ethical, of operating in the tribe’s territory, felling trees and risking the lives of the isolated tribe. They added that the company has already built more than 200 km of roads in the protected area for its logging trucks to extract timber.
Who are the Mashco Piro people?
This tribe, inhabiting the Amazon rainforest in southwestern Peru, sought shelter deep in the forest after a history of enslavement and exploitation. During the rubber boom of the 1880s, the demand for unpaid labour rose, disrupting the lives of the local Indigenous peoples.
Within the Amazon basin, rubber barons captured thousands of Indigenous people on their own land and forced them to extract rubber from trees in their territory. This led to the extermination of about 90% of the tribal population in some areas. Bonded labour was also a common practice during this time, and often, debt-ridden tribals fled into the forest to escape the barbarous rubber barons.
Those who managed to escape stayed hidden in the forest, remaining uncontacted from the rest of the world, for fear of another episode of brutality.
Today, the sacred land of this tribe has been invaded once again by profit-seeking businessmen, who have purchased large parts of their territory for logging, endangering the lives of these uncontacted people yet again.
Previous sightings and dangers
On June 28, 2024, the Peruvian government first reported that locals had sighted the tribe near the Las Piedras River, 150 kilometres from their isolated lands within the Amazon.
Survival International director Caroline Pearce said Canales Tahuamanu would begin logging operations only a few kilometres from the Mashco Piro’s traditional lands.
As pressure on their land increases, the Mashco Piro flee their lands, seeking haven elsewhere.
Members of the reclusive Mashco Piro tribe were sighted on the banks of a river outside their territory in late June. This tribe, hitherto uncontacted, has now started to emerge from its refuge deep in the Amazon. Read on to find out why the tribe has begun to interact with outsiders. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
