The 'Rajagopuram' or main gate of the 500-year-old Srikalahasti Temple in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor District collapsed late on Wednesday night. Srikalahasti is popularly known as "Dakshina Kaashi"
Though there were no casualties, over 100 monkeys living in the temple premises are feared to have been buried in the debris. Locals and experts blamed the collapse of the gate to unbridled drilling for tube wells in and around the area.
A week ago, cracks were noticed on the 136-feet gopuram. On Tuesday, a three-member team of experts from Chennai inspected the temple and declared the area around the gopuram extending up to 150 meters as a danger zone. The temple administration had evacuated over 30 families living in its vicinity on Tuesday night.
According to sources, by Wednesday, a portion of it had crumbled at around 8.10 p.m. Twenty minutes later, the entire structure built by Vijaynagar King Krishnadevaraya collapsed. But, miraculously, as the debris fell, Krishnadevaraya's statue right in front of the gopuram was left unscathed.
The architectural marvel was built by Krishnadevaraya in 1516 AD to celebrate his victory over the Gajapathi kingdom. The temple had developed cracks in the late 1980s too. In 1996, the Tirupati-Tirumala Devasthanam Board had helped renovate of the gate by filling in the breaches.
