World’s loneliest man, Indio Tanaru, who lived in the Brazilian Amazon for 25 years is dead.
His body was found in a hammock outside one of his huts last Tuesday, according to the Indigenous rights group, Survival International.
It is estimated that he was between 55 and 65 years old.
He was popularly known as the ‘Man of the Hole’ because of his habit of digging deep holes on the ground, some of which he used to trap animals while others appeared to be his hiding space.
The Man in the Hole, lives in Tanaru, an indigenous area in the state of Rondônia in Brazil.
According to a report by BBC, his body was found outside his straw hut located inside the forest and there were no signs of violence.
The man was the last surviving member of his tribe.
According to The Guardian, officials of Funai – Brazil’s national Indigenous Affairs Agency – believe that a majority of his tribe were killed by ranchers who wanted to expand their land in the 1970s.
In 1995, six of the remaining members of the tribe died in an attack by illegal miners, leaving him as the sole survivor.
Not much is known about his tribe apart from the fact that it underwent countless attacks by local farmers since the 1970s.
The Man of the Hole rejected any kind of contact with outsiders.
Marcelo dos Santos, a retired explorer who monitored his wellbeing for Funai told The Guardian.
“He didn’t trust anyone because he had many traumatising experiences with non-indigenous people.”
It was only in 1996 that Funai became aware of his existence.
Since then, the agency has taken the responsibility for his safety.
By 1997, officials had fenced off a part of the land where the man could live without any threat.
As he avoided any outside contact, it was not known what language the man spoke or which ethnic group he might have belonged to.
According to a report by the Independent, the man had survived another attack in 2009.
Following it, Funai feared that he had been killed after they found two discarded shotgun cartridges in the forest.
However, it was later discovered that he was safe.
Funai agent Altair José Algayer, who found the man’s body said that he lived in a hut made of straws.
All the huts that the man had made over the years contained a three-metre-deep hole.
The huts were almost identical in shape and size: a thatch structure with a single entrance and exit.
Indigenous expert Marcelo dos Santos said that he thinks the man knew that he was about to die and that’s why he had placed feathers on himself.
“He was waiting for death, there were no signs of violence,” he told the media.
Santos added that he had been dead for about 40 to 50 days before the body was found in a decomposed state.
After the discovery, the man’s body was sent to the state of Rondonia for forensic testing to determine whether he had contracted any disease.