Forest officials, however, said that none of the 200-odd animals in the 16 sq km safari park died in the fires which occurred in the last three days including a very massive fire on Sunday which ravaged nearly 5 hectares.

With the Diwali vacations on, tourist flow to the park has been very high during the last few days.

According to Mahesh Singh, Deputy Conservator of Forest(Gir West), ``On Saturday we came to know that the sparks flying out of a tourist car's exhaust caused a fire which gutted about 2 to 3 hectares. It was brought under control after sometime. Again on Sunday around 4:30 p.m, when more than 100 tourists were in Devalia, another fire engulfed the four-feet long thick dry grass in an area of about 5 hectares. Forest officials said the fire was caused by a cigarette butt thrown carelessly from one vehicle.

Forest sources said, ``Luckily, none of the animals got trapped or was injured in the fires. At present, there are four lions, 100 spotted deer, 120 neelgai, 5 sambars, 2 black bucks and 25 wild boars in the interpretation zone.''