In an era where communication across continents is nearly instantaneous, the notion that some people are unaware of social media, supermarkets, and phones can be hard to fathom.

Through drone footage acquired by G. Miranda for Survival International, visuals of tribes that have remained disconnected from the outside world have been documented.

The drone’s flight spanned over North Sentinel Island in a secluded area of India and also over Amazon tribes located in Brazil near the Javari River valley close to the Peruvian border.

The purpose of these videos is to emphasize the remarkable diversity of lifestyles on Earth, contrasting sharply with our hectic, digitally-driven lives.

Since its 2018 upload on the Death Island Expeditions YouTube channel, a compilation video featuring photographs of these uncontacted people has amassed over 3.5 million views.

The footage reveals small communities and dwellings, along with the tribespeople themselves.

In certain images, tribespeople are depicted with bows and arrows, appearing to gaze directly at the drone or camera equipment.

“It blows my mind how different our lives are. The fact that they don’t even know about the existence of grocery stores, factories, phones, social media, everything that makes our society what it is. It’s so surreal,” one user commented.

FUNAI, the National Indian Foundation, which is a Brazilian governmental agency, implements and governs policies concerning indigenous groups, including uncontacted tribes.

This organization is also credited with some of the drone imagery included in the video.

The capture of Brazil’s uncontacted tribes by drone took place in 2008, as reported by the human rights organization Survival International.

Reports indicate that FUNAI faced increasing pressure from influential economic entities and politicians to provide evidence of these tribes’ existence amid opposition to Amazonian development.

Uncontacted tribes expert José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior stated, “We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist.”

Back in 2008, Meirelles also highlighted the threats these uncontacted tribes face from illegal loggers in Peru, which might lead to conflicts.

“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 ‘civilised’ ones, treat the world,” he remarked.

Brazilian indigenous leaders praised FUNAI’s choice to release the footage, stressing the heightened risks these communities face from diseases and violence if outsiders make contact.

“The very fact that these groups are uncontacted makes them particularly vulnerable because they’re invisible to the majority of the public,” Beto Marubo, an indigenous activist, explained to National Geographic.