Revenue department to lodge the complaint after forest officials confirm that the comedian dumped debris and damaged green cover stretching up to 10 metres behind his Versova office
Chaitanya Marpakwar (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 18, 2016)

In a report submitted to district collector Deependra Singh Kushwaha on Saturday, the forest department's mangrove conservation cell has nailed Kapil Sharma for destroying the trees by unlawfully expanding the back of his Versova office-bungalow, which sits on a Mhada plot. With the report confirming breach of green regulations, the comedian faces a second FIR in the matter of illegal extensions made to his properties.

Last week, the city administration had filed a first information report (FIR) against him for making unauthorised alterations to another of his properties — an apartment at DLH Enclave in Oshiwara which he is said to have sold off — under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act.

The report tendered Saturday, though, embroils many of Sharma's celebrity neighbours at Versova's SV Patel Nagar as well for wrecking mangrove cover stretching up to 400 metres from their estates, either by dumping debris or building backyards and gardens on to the flora.

The statutes of the Environment Protection Act strictly prohibit any construction activity or dumping of construction waste in the buffer zone of 50 metres abutting mangrove cover to facilitate movement of intertidal waters. "But more than 90 per cent of the bungalows there are found to have violated the norms," an official who helped compile the report said.

The state's revenue department will be the complainant in the case against Sharma. "On the basis of the mangrove cell's report, we will file an FIR against Sharma under the Environment Protection Act, since the report confirms that mangroves have been destroyed, which is a very serious offence," a senior revenue official said.

He added that apart from illegal extensions, debris had also been dumped at the backside of Sharma's bungalow to level off a 10-metre stretch.

Wreckage surveyed

The mangrove cell's report on mass destruction of the foliage — put together by assistant conservator of forests Makarand Ghodke and finalised by chief conservator of forests N Vasudevan, who heads the cell — comes after forest and revenue officials conducted a joint survey last Monday of plot numbers 70 and 71, which house the bungalows of Sharma and the other violators. They were acting on complaints that mangroves on at least 100 sq ft of the land had been destroyed.

After the inspection, an official from the mangrove cell said, "We have not suggested a specific course and it is up to the collector to take action now."

Collector Kushwaha, who received the report, said an FIR will be registered soon. Meanwhile, Sharma will be called in for questioning by the police this week.

The TV showman's showdown with the authorities hotted up on August 4, when the city administration tore down unlawful changes made to his Versova office.

But it peaked on September 9, when Sharma tweeted that officials at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had demanded a Rs 5 lakh kickback from him; in the same tweet, he had tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, risibly questioning his promised "achhe din" and sparking a spate of tongue-in-cheek comments on the microblogging site with users mocking the logic of his actions.

STARING AT A 5-YR JAIL TERM

The non-bailable offence of damaging mangroves carries a minimum sentence of five years imprisonment.