By Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan

Haridwar, Mar 23 (IANS): A huge fire swept through yoga guru Baba Ramdev's natural health centre here on Sunday afternoon, reducing it to ashes.

A stray spark from an ongoing jungle fire is believed to have led to the blaze in the modern and state-of-the-art centre, built in 2009 at the cost of Rs 70 crore, in the Yog Gram Ashram.

Speaking to IANS over phone, Ramdev's spokesman S. Tijarawala confirmed the huge damage. Ramdev's associate, Acharya Balkrishan also took to Twitter to speak about the blaze, and also shared a video of the leaping flames.

Eyewitnesses said that the fire could be linked to the jungle fire as there is not much distance between the forested area and Yog Gram.

The fire started from some cottages near the centre, and by the time, it was detected, had swept across Yog Gram. Fire engines rushed to the spot but were unable to douse the flames and by night time, the complex was fully gutted.

Tijarawala told IANS that the entire centre was burnt down.