According to sources unabated rainfall in Karnataka’s Bagalakot district has inundated UNESCO World Heritage temples in Aihole and Pattadakal. Meanwhile water from the Naviluteertha Dam was released into the Malaprabha River on Friday, which led to the inundation of the heritage temples.
Reportedly Pattadakal is located 23 km away from Badami and Aihole at a distance of 35 km from the popular tourist destination and the monuments located in Aihole and Pattadakal were built by the Chalukyas between the 6th and 8th century CE. Furthermore according to Bagalakot Deputy Commissioner Ramachandran, the nine Hindu temples and a Jain sanctuary built by the Chalukyas in Pattadakal were inundated on Friday and continued to flood on Saturday.
DC Ramachandran added “The virupaksha temple, was built in 740 CE by Queen Lokamahadevi to commemorate her husband's victory over southern kingdoms. This is the biggest tourist attraction here and water logging is up to 5 ft above ground level currently”. Moreover two cave temples and 12 other heritage temples in Aihole too were inundated. lokesh, SP of Bagalkot told “So far we don’t have any human casualty in the district. There are some animal deaths. We have three rivers Ghataprabha, Malaprabha and krishna all three have flooded their banks. Approximately till now, 70,000 people have been evacuated from low lying areas to safety”.
