Hyderabad: The Gods must be angry, locals say, as nothing else other than climate change can explain the fury with which nature burst forth from the Tirumala Hills on to the temple town of Tirupati on Thursday after a torrential rain of 12-14 cm over a few hours.
It was unprecedented rain that caused the flooding, says Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam chief executive Jawahar Reddy. “We had almost 20 cm rain on Tirumala Hills because of which there was heavy floodwater from Tirumala to Tirupati, so low-lying areas in Tirumala and Tirupati were flooded.”
The flood in Tirupati and other districts in south Andhra Pradesh shocked everyone, who saw viral videos on not just torrential flooding never seen before in Tirupati but also because one of the worst drought-prone districts in the country, Anantapur, came under water.
One of the most striking visuals was from Kapila Theertham, by whose side the Kapileshwaraswamy temple stands. A waterfall burst forth dramatically with ferocity never seen before and the entire area came under a torrent of water at one go. Four pillars of the temple were damaged.
