Tingplik Express

(In this image made available Thursday May 29, from Survival International, showing ‘uncontacted Indians’ of the Envira, who have never before had any contact with the outside world, photographed during an overflight in May 2008)

“We did the over-flight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist,” said un-contacted tribes’ expert José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior. Meirelles works for FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department. “This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence.”

Meirelles says that the groups’ numbers are increasing. But other un-contacted groups in the region, whose homes have been photographed from the air, are in severe danger from illegal logging in Peru. Logging is driving un-contacted tribes over the border and could lead to conflict with the estimated five hundred un-contacted Indians already living on the Brazilian side.

“What is happening in this region [of Peru] is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilized’ ones, treat the world,” said Meirelles.

There are more than one hundred un-contacted tribes worldwide, with more than half living in either Brazil or Peru. All are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed and decimated by new diseases. Survival has launched an urgent campaign to get their land protected, and a unique film narrated by actress Julie Christie.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, “These pictures are further evidence that un-contacted tribes really do exist. The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct.”