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The dense green jungle and reddish-brown elevations of Lote, located on India’s west coast, lead to a small hill where a factory looms against the sky.

The factory is largely newly built, but its equipment is not: it comes from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following one of the worst ecological controversies in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the company’s management was prosecuted for polluting water resources in an region home to 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were convicted at the local tribunal of environmental damage and other charges and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against.

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Nevertheless, the entire operational setup, its patents and processes – all required components to manufacture forever chemicals – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. 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 toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high concentrations 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 own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its specialty chemicals division, displayed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS documented in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to Pfas, and discovered I had them all,” says Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are linked to higher chances of cancer, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and activist with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her offspring’s blood tests indicated elevated amounts of persistent pollutants. When she learned that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being sent to India, she was stunned.

“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 assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s management downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”.

Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in prison. Per a former mid-level manager speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the firm’s collapse.

Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to commence manufacturing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s plan explicitly spelled out the objective to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the manufacturing of PFAS and specialty chemicals. Logistics data show that, to get approval on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to companies with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including 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 pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Investigations demonstrate that levels of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, especially near manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is increasing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority.

“If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is not present in such guidelines. It’s not recognised by the Indian government currently,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in various regions. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still very few of them.”

Regional Consequences

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

The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized.

“The local villages have always stated that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant cannot function and industries discharge contaminated effluent directly into the streams.” Regulatory bodies have sent several warning letters to the plant in recent years.

International Ramifications

In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is reviewing a proposal to prohibit the production, importation and use of over ten thousand forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the developing nations, per Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I believe that this issue should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been transferred to a nation like India should lead us to reflect, minimally, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects linked to PFAS manufacturing are likely to affect communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for years to come.

“The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies establish presence, it’s perpetually concerning.”