Photos Capture Amazon Tribe As They Beat And Strip Illegal Loggers

PHOTOS: Amazon Tribe Beats And Strips Illegal Loggers

The Ka'apor Indians, a tribe of indigenous Brazilians living in the northeast region of the country's expansive rainforest, have begun taking up arms against illegal loggers who are threatening their homeland. On one of their recent searches for loggers, they were joined by Reuters photographer Lunae Parracho, who documented the scene when they reportedly found a number of the men.

"The warriors stripped them, tied them up and beat those who resisted," Parracho details in his account of the event for Reuters. Parracho said that the raids are the tribe members' way of taking matters into their own hands after a perceived lack of government assistance to stop the loggers.

Illegal logging is an endemic issue in the Amazon. A 2014 report by Greenpeace found that more than half of logging in the two largest timber-producing states in Brazil was done illegally from August 2011 to July 2012.

Ka'apor Indian warriors tie up loggers during a jungle expedition to search for and expel them from the Alto Turiacu Indian territory, near the Centro do Guilherme municipality in the northeast of Maranhao state in the Amazon basin, Aug. 7, 2014. (Reuters/Lunae Parracho)
A Ka'apor Indian warrior (L) chases a logger who tried to escape after he was captured during a jungle expedition to search for and expel loggers from the Alto Turiacu Indian territory, near the Centro do Guilherme municipality in the northeast of Maranhao state in the Amazon basin, Aug. 7, 2014. (Reuters/Lunae Parracho)

Click here to see more of Parracho's photos.

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