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The lush tropical forest and rust-red elevations of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its equipment is not: it originates from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for contaminating water resources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and additional offenses and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – everything needed to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it left behind. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated concentrations of PFAS compounds in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been subjected through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its specialty chemicals division, displayed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas ever recorded in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, fertility issues and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood indicated high levels of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being sent to India, she was stunned.

“Being parents, as females, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By early 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company established in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the June trial and given six years and four months in prison. According to a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to start producing fluorochemicals matching Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be used in agrochemicals, medicines, colorants, beauty products and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, especially near manufacturing facilities. But although international attention is growing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have conducted studies in various regions. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fisher folk communities in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The chemical district is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“Nearby communities have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and factories release polluted water directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have issued multiple notices to the site in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to ban the production, import and use of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be pushing the sector to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I believe that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”