The Supreme Court lifted the omnibus ban on iron ore mines in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts of Karnataka and permitted 81 lease owners, who had committed minor violations, to resume mining after compliance of stringent conditions laid down by the courts. Moving forward from its reference to illegal mining activity for decades under active political patronage as `a shocking state of depredation of nature's bounty by human greed`, a bench of Justices Aftab Alam, KS Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi ordered cancellation of leases of 49 iron ore mines, terming them as major violators. What was happening in Karnataka was unprecedented in the history of Indian environmental jurisprudence, the bench said, expressing surprise over the extent of devastation caused to nature and environment by rampant illegal iron ore mining.