kochi waking up to the reality that trees are being cut without reason and some not being cut despite requiring to be the kerala forest department is debating on introducing sonic tomography to understand the health of a tree tomographs are similar to mri images used for human medical imaging we are considering using computer tomography to test the health of a tree especially in public places where a sudden fall can cause damage to life and property the sensors are placed on the tree trunk and the images of the inner portions are taken said bs corrie additional principal chief conservator of forests sometimes the trees look strong from the outside but could be hollow inside so even if it is standing in a public place the local body can cut the tree immediately to prevent an accident he said an evaluation committee chaired by corrie winston suting apccf northern region c v anoop head department of wood science college of forestry kerala agricultural university tulsidas wood scientist at kerala forest research institute sreekumar dfo timber sales perumbavoor and nagaraj dfo malayatoor evaluated the field trials demonstrated by elixir technologies bangalore the trials were held at the mudikal timber depot and the forests of malayatoor forest division on friday and saturday sonic tomography tracks the speed of sound waves through the trunk or large branch of a tree or in some cases large roots the tomogram is an image of the scanned area which is more or less a flat plane crosssection through the tree or branch this is done by placing sensors around the trunk or branch of a tree and tapping the sensors with an electronic hammer that begins the sound wave sonic tomography detects differences in the ability of wood to transmit sound waves however it cannot identify the specific reason for such differences if the tree has a disease the device will detect it as it uses sound and electric signals to detect the condition the only disadvantage is that you cant detect damage beyond a certain height from ground level you need to fix the probes using a ladder said dr c v anoop head department of wood science college of forestry kau