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The lush tropical forest and reddish-brown hills of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, lead to a small hill where a factory looms against the sky.

The factory is largely newly built, but its machinery is not: it originates from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was brought to trial for contaminating water resources in an region home to 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and other charges and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

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And yet, the entire operational setup, its patents and methods – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among local communities and groves of trees. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Previously recognized for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants had been exposed through drinking water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of PFAS ever recorded in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a list of medical conditions associated with PFAS, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests indicated high levels of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was stunned.

“As mothers, as females, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Because our children are the children of all.”

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were bought in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the open sale. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was boasting of its recent purchase to investors. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company established in 2021. Also included 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 jail. Per a former mid-level manager requesting confidentiality, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already planning to start producing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to get approval on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, medicines, colorants, cosmetics and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are alarmingly high, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though international attention is growing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in different states. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this region totally deteriorated,” she said.

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

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and industries discharge contaminated effluent directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is examining a plan to prohibit the manufacture, import and utilization of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This attention may be pushing the industry to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this matter should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, patents and equipment have been relocated to a country like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to relocate in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

“That region has seen enough ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s always a risk.”