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The lush tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, located on India’s west coast, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms under the open sky.

This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its equipment is far from new: it originates from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 after among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for contaminating water sources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and other charges and given prison sentences, with appeals anticipated.

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Nevertheless, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and processes – everything needed to manufacture forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between villages and wooded areas. And the plant has just started to resume PFAS production.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its specialism in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been subjected through potable water.

The most impacted 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. “When the story came to light, I looked at a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Community Concerns

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after discovering her offspring’s blood tests showed elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being transferred to India, she was shocked.

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

Business Shift

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary 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. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the directorate of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company founded 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 sentenced to 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 firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s assets 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 fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Logistics data show that, to get approval on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples 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, manufacturing substances that will be used in agrochemicals, medicines, colorants, cosmetics and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Studies demonstrate that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in various regions. But these studies are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

Parineeta Dandekar, head 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 fisher folk communities in this region completely collapsed,” she said.

The industrial area is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and industries discharge contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the plant in the past few years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a proposal to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, intellectual assets and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the power that these global corporations have to move in countries where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of environmental protection.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for years to come.

“That region has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”