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The lush green jungle and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, lead to a small hill where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

This industrial unit is almost brand new, but its equipment is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for contaminating water resources in an area home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against.

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Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and methods – everything needed to manufacture 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 just started to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Previously recognized for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been subjected through potable water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of PFAS documented in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are linked to increased risk of cancer, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent medical procedure.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed high levels of forever chemicals. When she found out 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. “Since our kids are everyone’s children.”

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By early 2023, all the equipment was being shipped heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to investors. Records of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of environmental pollution and false accounting at the recent court case and given six years and four months in prison. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already planning to start producing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the production of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to get approval on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out test batches to companies with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, beauty products and additional goods.

Environmental Oversight

Investigations have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But although global focus is increasing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s not recognised by the national authorities currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in different states. But these studies are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and factories release polluted water directly into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to ban the production, importation and use of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this issue should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, patents and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the influence that these global corporations have to relocate in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the polluted location in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an hazardous setting for years to come.

“The area has seen enough ecological damage already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”