More than 50 members of an uncontacted Indigenous tribe have been photographed on a riverbank in the remote Peruvian Amazon near an area where logging companies have been granted concessions by the country’s government.
The large group from the Mashco Piro appeared in recent days near the southeastern village of Monte Salvado, which belongs to the Yine people. A smaller group of 17 appeared near a neighboring village.
The Yine, who speak a language related to that of the Mashco Piro, have previously reported that the uncontacted tribe has been angry about the presence of loggers on their land, according to the Indigenous rights group Survival International.
“This is irrefutable evidence that many Mashco Piro live in this area, which the government has not only failed to protect, but actually sold off to logging companies,” Alfredo Vargas Pio, president of the local Indigenous rights group FENAMAD, said in a statement from Survival International.
The Peruvian government for comment did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
FENAMAD also said the secluded tribe has been sighted leaving the rainforest more often in recent weeks to look for food and to avoid loggers, according to Reuters.
