Research Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences __________________________________ ISSN 2320-6063 Vol. 3(1), 12-15, January (2015) Res. J. Agriculture and Forestry Sci. International Science Congress Association       
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Efficacy of different Physical Barriers around Maize crop to control Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) at Southern Telangana zone, Telangana State, India Vasudeva Rao V., Sudhakar C., Ravinder Reddy V., Naresh B* and Venkateswarlu P1 All India Network Project on Vertebrate Pest Management, PJTSAU, Hyderabad-500030, INDIA Agricultural Research Station, Tandur, INDIA Available online at: 
www.isca.in, www.isca.me
Received 18th  September2014, revised 29th October 2014, accepted 7th November 2014Abstract In recent years, wild boar (Sus scrofa) causing enormous damage to the agricultural crops at various stages, that is mainly due to the over exploitation of their natural resources and non availability of preferred dietary items.  This resulted in to sever man-animal conflict. The present study highlighted the use of different physical barriers to control the wild boar entry in to the agricultural fields and minimize the crop damage and also to reduce the man-animal conflict.Keywords: Wild boar, management, maize crop, physical barriers. Introduction Agricultural production in India is mainly affected by insect pests, plant diseases, and weed plants to a greater extent. In the recent times mammals with special reference to rodents, wild boars, blue bull and monkeys started gaining pest status and in certain cases a huge damage is being encountered due to some of these vertebrate pests. Among them, wild boar has become regular menace for farmers in major crops resulting into enormous damage. Unlike other pests, which generally attack during a particular stage of the crop, cause damage right from seedling to till the maturity of the crop1,2. The basic reason for such unexpected abrupt raise in their populations can be attributed in escalating rate of deforestation, which is otherwise are the natural habitats of those species. Deforestation also resulted in the decline of Tigers, Panthers, Wild dogs, Wolf, and Jackal, which are the natural predators for wild boars, thereby indirectly contributing to the phenomenal raise in the wild boar populations. Over exploitation of forest resources by the mankind forced wild boars out of their natural habitat and compelled them to depend on cultivated crops such as Rice, Maize, Sorghum, Pulses, Oil seeds, Fruits and Vegetables. The damage caused by wild boar is more alarming than their actual feeding in the crop. Wild boar damage is more pronounced in crop fields which are in close proximity with adjoining forests areas. Along with rice and sorghum, maize is one of the important food crops in Telangana state. Due to high nutritious value which is used in most of the food products apart from using as food it is also used as dhana in poultry industry, fodder for cattle and as raw material in many industries, after getting importance from World Trade Organization (WTO) it got exporting capacity. It is mainly rain fed, every year which is cultivated approximately 2 to 4 lakh hectares. In this state which is highly cultivated in Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Warangal, Medak, Rangareddy and Mahabubnagar districts. Wild boar is a major problematic species in the agricultural crops in many parts of India. It raid crops and utilises the agro-ecosystem for food. Presently the wild boar populations are fragmented and relatively isolated. Some of these isolated populations became locally abundant and depended upon agricultural crops. Besides agricultural crops, it causes damage to ground vegetation, orchards, forest plantations and possibly acts as carrier of some infectious diseases. As a result, there has been increasing trend in the human–wild boar conflict throughout the country. Consequently, people have developed antagonistic attitude towards the wild boar and which is adversely affecting the conservation efforts. The problem of crop damage by wild boars has been widely reported from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh5,6. This paper presents the findings and mitigation strategies of our study to prevent the wild boar damage in Telangana state. Until now farmers have used many different traditional measures for damage prevention on cultivated crops by wild boar, with the aim of searching for proper solutions to preventing damage, we conducted field experiments at various maize fields, in which tested different physical barriers against wild boar and also to prove the effectiveness of various physical barriers with the intention to reduce damage due to wild boar.Material and Methods The field experiments were conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Tandur (17.227161 N, 77.586547 E) and College farm Rajendranagar (17.321524 N, 78.409289 E) for four years (from 2010 to 2014) during both Kharif and Rabi seasons. Randomized block design was employed with three types of