Flood Ravaged Famous Temples and Holy Places in Andhra Pradesh

Flood fury engulfed many famous temples of Andhra Pradesh. Mantralayam and Alampur are the most damaged temples due to the heavy rains and flood of the Tungabhadra River. From the beginning of October in 2009, floods of the Tungabhadra and the Krishna Rivers have raged their flows over the holy places like Mantralayam and Nandyal of Kurnool district; Beechupalli and Alampur in Mahboobnagar district; Vedadri, Muktyala and Vijayawada in Krishna district; Amaravati and Repalle in Guntur district and Mattapalli in Nalgonda district.
G Arun Kumar writes for Times of India:

It appears even god couldn’t save himself from the nature’s fury. Several historical temples continue to be marooned in Mahbubnagar, Guntur, Nalgonda and Krishna districts. While there was no respite from the flood waters for the famous Jogulamba temple in Alampur town in Mahbubnagar, the ancient Amaralingeswara Swamy temple in Amaravathi town in Guntur was encircled by water. It may be recalled the famous Raghavendra Swamy temple in Mantralayam suffered the maximum damage because of the floods. Mantralayam tehsildar Sankarappa pegged the loss at a staggering Rs 100 crore.

Water flowed at 10 ft close to the 7th century Alampur temple, known as Dakshin Kasi which was built by Badami Chalukyas, on Tuesday. Sources said the problem was compounded by the safety wall which separates the temple from the Tungabhadra river bank. The protective wall is the stumbling block to let out the excess water. Tehsildar Premraj said the water could be pumped out only with the use of motors.

One of the 18 Shakti Peethams in the country, Alampur temple has always faced floods when Tungabhadra was in spate. Located at the confluence of Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers, the temple is a connoisseurs’ delight for its unique architecture and splendour.

Sources said 6,000 people were still taking shelter in a school in Alampur town, which is under 3-4 ft slush. While Kondaramaswamy and Shiva temples at Beechupally in Mahbubnagar district were submerged for three days, the Vedadri Narasimhaswamy temple in Jaggaiahpet mandal in Krishna district was in deep waters for four days. The 1,100-year- old Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Mattapally in Nalgonda continued to be enveloped in waters.