Uncontacted Amazon Tribe in Brazil Rainforest

Brazil's National Indian Foundation announced the discovery of a new Indian tribe in the western Amazon rainforest. Researchers have spotted and photographed the indigenous tribe on the border between Brazil and Peru.

The Brazilian government declared it had taken the images to prove that the tribe existed and to help protect its territory. Taken from a helicopter, the photos show red-painted men outside communal huts, pointing bows upwards.

There are more than 100 uncontacted tribes in the world, with half of them living in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon. The Brazilian government believes 40 of the tribes are on Brazil’s territory, while another 15 are thought to live in Peru, and a few others in Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, the Guardian.co.uk reports. A few more uncontacted tribes can be found in Indonesia, north Sentinel Island, Papua and the Bay of Bengal.

Survival International, a nonprofit group that advocates for the rights of indigenous people, said Thursday that this kind of tribes are all in danger of “being forced off their land, killed or decimated by new diseases.” According to scientists, two of the main dangers for the tribes are oil exploration and deforestation.

In a released statement, the director of Survival International talks about the irrational way in which the “civilized” people treats the world, threatening “the natural world, the tribes, the fauna.”

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law," said Stephen Corry, as quoted by Times Online. "Otherwise they will be made extinct."

The foundation said it didn’t know which tribe the newly discovered Indians belonged to.