Men are likely to blame and trees could pay the price for the three recent fires on the Gaya International Airport's premises, provided Airports Authority of India (AAI) approves a plan.

The plan is to clear tall bushes and dried grass on the premises to avert any future fires and build roads to make it easy for fire tenders to reach every corner, airport director Samar Kumar Biswas said on Sunday.

He said an estimate will be prepared on the construction work to be undertaken at the airport and sent to the Airport Authority of India's regional headquarters in Calcutta for approval.

Once they get the green light from the authorities, cleaning work and construction of roads will start, he said.

The action is being taken after the tall bushes caught fire thrice since Thursday evening. In a complaint to the police, Biswas said the bushes on the airport premises caught fire after residents dumped debris of Holika Dahan - a bonfire lit up during Holi - in the south-eastern end of the airport. He requested the police to investigate and identify the guilty. Gaya city superintendent of police (SP) Rakesh Kumar said an FIR was lodged with Magadh Medical police station on Saturday after the airport director's complaint.

Police will conduct a thorough investigation. B.N. Singhof Magadh Medical police station has been made investigation officer in the case, the city SP said. Prima facie, investigators said, the dried bushes caught fire after someone threw some burning substance on the airport premises after Holika Dahan late on Thursday.

The fire was doused but not fully and soon the wind carried embers to another part. As the bush was dry, it immediately caught fire. When the bush caught fire on Thursday it was doused in three hours.

When it caught fire again on Friday, the fire spread to the runway and six fire tenders had to battle it for 12 hours before dousing it.

That was not the end. The bushes once again caught fire on Saturday, this time some distance from the runway.

Because of the fire along the runway on Friday, two Air India flights, including Delhi-Gaya-Varanasi-Delhi and Calcutta-Gaya-Yangoon were delayed for about three hours and three-and-a-half hours respectively.

On Saturday, Gaya district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal asked the airport to prune tall bushes and grass on the premises, as they were not only vulnerable to fire but also dangerous from the airport's security point of view. But the airport needs the AAI nod.

The tall bushes on the premises have created trouble in the past too. Around two years ago, a Nilgai or Asian antelope had entered the airport premises. And just last month, a search was launched after some airport employees claimed they had seen a tiger. On both occasions, forest officials had a tough time looking for the animals amid the tall bushes. The Nilgai was found with great difficulty but the tiger has never been seen since.