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The dense tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, give way to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands under the open sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following among the most severe environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for contaminating water sources in an area home to 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and additional offenses and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes

Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – all required components to manufacture Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the plant has just started to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated levels of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been exposed through potable water.

The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its specialty chemicals division, displayed among the top levels of PFAS documented in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a catalog of health issues related to PFAS, and discovered I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the blood are associated with increased risk of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, began mobilizing after discovering her children’s blood showed elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

“Being parents, as women, our anxiety has increased,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.”

Corporate Transition

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with European standards”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity established in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and false accounting at the recent court case and given six years and four months in prison. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India months before the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to start producing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan clearly outlined the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and fluorochemicals. Logistics data indicate that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, colorants, cosmetics and other products.

Regulatory Context

Investigations demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the environment are alarmingly high, especially near production sites. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the matter is not on the political agenda yet.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in such guidelines. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in various regions. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a poor ecological history”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source of fisher folk communities in this area completely collapsed,” she said.

The chemical district is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and factories discharge polluted water straight into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the production, importation and use of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be driving the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I believe that this matter should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, intellectual assets and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the power that these global corporations have to move in nations where there is clearly a race to the bottom in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with Pfas production are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for years to come.

“The area has seen enough environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”