Sixty-year-old Bhimabai Patil’s first inhale every morning is a lungful of foul-smelling industrial smog. Not just her; every breath of the residents of Siddhi Karavale village, and 26 others within a 400-meter radius of MIDC Taloja industrial area, is of toxic, chemical-laden air. A mere decade-and-half ago, stalls peddling watermelons lined the road to the village-turning-into-a-town. Taloja’s farmers grew the fruit, and the motorway had a biryani pit-stop said to be favoured by Meena Kumari.

“I got married and moved here in 1981,” Patil says, “Air and water were cleaner then, even with industries nearby. But since 2002, we have been waking up to a strong, pungent smell that persists throughout the day and intensifies early in the morning and late at night.”