If any person shall open or make any highway, or shall construct any railroad, turnpike or canal, or any other thing in the nature of a public easement, over, through, in or upon, such part of any enclosure, being the property of a township, city, religious society, or of any other body corporate, or of private proprietors, as may be used or appropriated for the burial of the dead, unless an authority for that purpose shall be specially granted by law, or unless the consent of such township, city, religious society, body corporate or proprietors respectively, shall be first obtained, he shall be punished by fine not exceeding 2,000 dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not more than 1 year.
MCL 752.73