They confessed that they hunted the birds to extract some oil Thoothukudi Forest Department officials on Sunday arrested three poachers on charges of hunting peacocks and recovered eight slain birds at Vilathikulam in Thoothukudi district. Acting on a tip-off that peacocks were hunted in areas of Inasurai, Koothalurai, Kammapatti, Chennamarettypatti and Pillaiyarnatham, the District Forest Officer, Nathan, constituted a patrolling team. The team raided places in Koothalurai, Kammapatti, Chennamarettypatti and Pillaiyarnatham on Saturday night. When the patrolling team reached Vilathikulam around 2 a.m. on Sunday, three men were waiting at the Vilathikulam busstand with gunny bags. On suspicion, the forest officials questioned the trio and recovered eight dead peacocks dumped in gunny bags. Of the eight birds, one was a peacock and the remaining were peahen. The three poachers were arrested immediately and handed over to the Vilathikulam police station. The arrested have been identified as K Murugan (38), B Sandhana Kumar and V Deivasigamani (39), all hailing from Vilathikulam. During interrogation, the trio confessed that they hunted the birds to prepare some oils.