Friday, December 16, 2005

How to encroach...a dummy's guide to encroachment

Here's a step by step approach for encroachment on Mumbai's green areas:

  1. Pick a nice spot with some greenery around it. There should be a road of some sort along this.
  2. Get dumpers to dump debris at the edge of the road so that it destroys some of the greenery - night is a good time to do this, but could also be done in the day time depending on your clout. An infinite supply of debris is guaranteed given the amount of digging and construction and re-construction in Mumbai.
  3. After a few months, the debris should be enough for the dumper (trucks) to go further into the greenery and destroy that too.
  4. Square meter at a time, the greenery will soon be covered by a lot of debris. At this stage, the debris now looks like a proper raised platform on which one can start building shanties and setting up shops.
  5. The place has now been encroached upon.
  6. If some crazy officials object, show them "the way" or bribe your way out.
  7. If some crazier ordinary people try to stop you, threaten them with dire consequences.
  8. Congratulations! You are now the proud "owner" of a newly created estate.
PS: I'll soon post pics of this happening. Keep an eye open for such things in your areas too.