Sosamma Iype

[2] Sosamma, who holds a PhD from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana worked as Head of the Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding at the Kerala Veterinary University.

[5] In the early nineties, Sosamma and her husband, Dr. Abraham Varkey, who was also a veterinarian, traveled for years with a group of young vet graduates to remote villages in the Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kottayam districts in search of pure bred Vechur cows.

[2] Her interventions are considered by some people to be the second major biodiversity conservation initiative in Kerala after the campaign to protect the environmentally vulnerable Silent Valley.

[5] When the project was successful, Sosamma was accused of collaborating with the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh to patent the vechur cow's genetic code.

Environmentalist Vandana Shiva had claimed that the Roslin Institute in Scotland obtained a patent for discovering the genetic makeup of Vechoor cows.