NEW DELHI, NOV 16: Bumbooram, the tiger who became a celebrity when he was sighted by Bill Clinton on his visit to Ranthambhore National Park last year, has now become the subject of controversy, with a question mark hanging over his very existence.While Fateh Singh Rathore, the park's ex-field director who's acknowledged as the `Tiger Man' who revived the Reserve, claims that he hasn't seen the tiger in over three months. But the current Field Director Rajiv Tyagi maintains that the tiger ``is in the jungle.'' But when asked further when Bumbooram was last sighted, the officer refused to comment.According to Rathore, now an honorary warden at the Park, the lack of sighting could mean two things: ``Either the tiger has shifted his territory - as tigers have been known to do, especially in the monsoons - or he has become the victim of poaching.''Just last week, a group of poachers was arrested.``But the point is, has anyone at the Park bothered to find out what has happened to Bumbooram?'' asks Rathore, who, incidentally, accompanied the then US President - who kept calling Bumbooram `Boomerang' - on his visit to the forest.Other officials at the Park, meanwhile, claim that until Rathore raised the alarm, they had been unaware of Bumbooram's movements.``This is the first time I've heard of Bumbooram not being sighted,'' said G V Reddy, Deputy Director of the Park, ``and I will have to check my records to see when Bumbooram was last seen - that will take about two days. After that, we will begin conduct a survey, which will take about a month.'' According to him, ``while patrollers at the Park report the movement of tigers on a daily basis, the reports are not on individual tigers,'' but rather a headcount of the number of tigers spotted. ``If the records show that Bumbooram has indeed not been sighted in some time, we will then conduct a proper inquiry into it,'' he added.When told that Rathore had already noted the absence of the tiger, Tyagi replied irritably: ``But Fateh Singh Rathore is not the park's director. If he is so concerned about the tiger, he should have reported the matter to the Field Director instead of going to the press with it.''He also adds that it is ``not unusual'' for a tiger to not be sighted for months at a time. ``As of now both possibilities - of poaching and a shift in territory - exist and we will address the matter.''The eight-year-old tiger was sighted in March this year by Clinton in the Bakola area, which is where he was seen frequently for about two months. The Park closed on June 31, and the tiger, according to Rathore, has not been sighted ever since it reopened, on October 1.
