Maharashtra Mangrove Cell on Saturday submitted a report to the Collector of Mumbai Suburbs after it was reported that owners of 50-60 homes in SVP Nagar of Versova — including actor-comedian Kapil Sharma — had allegedly extended their properties into 10 metres of protected wetlands by encroaching upon the mangroves in their backyard. The use of GPS recordings with the help of Google Earth was done to find out about this. MRSAC reveals that within 50 metres of the plots construction and reclamation had been done. Some of these are within 7 metres of MHADA plots, which clearly indicated that there was illegal construction.”The Google maps have been submitted along with the report. The authorities have been asked to find out if it is illegal to do so as per Bombay High Court order of 2005.

Source: dna September 18, 2016 03:33 UTC