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The dense green jungle and reddish-brown hills of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, lead to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands against the sky.

The factory is almost brand new, but its machinery is far from new: it originates from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following one of the worst environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, previous company leaders were found guilty at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

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And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and methods – all required components to produce forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the plant has just started to produce forever chemicals again.

A Toxic Legacy

Once known for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it left behind. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. 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, displayed one of the highest concentrations of Pfas ever recorded in blood samples. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

High levels of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and additional ailments. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and campaigner with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests showed elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she found out that Miteni’s proprietary information and machinery were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

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

Business Shift

After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By early 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to European standards”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was convicted of environmental pollution and false accounting at the June trial and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt.

While Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the company was already intending to commence manufacturing fluorinated compounds matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to inquiries.

Strategic Expansion

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Shipping records show that, to get approval on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, colorants, cosmetics and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are worryingly elevated, 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 those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in various regions. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

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

“Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and industries release polluted water directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have issued several warning letters to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be pushing the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this issue should be examined, 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 power that these multinationals have to move in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Ongoing Risks

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to Pfas production are likely to affect populations that are facing an hazardous setting for generations.

“That region has experienced sufficient environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s always a risk.”