Musician Shankar Mahadevan has shown his support for tiger "Ustad", who has been shifted from the Ranthambore National Park to a zoo.

Mahadevan took to micro-blogging website Twitter on Tuesday to show his support for the animal and wrote that he should be released as he is "innocent".

"Tiger Ustad is innocent. Please release him from Rajasthan zoo and send him back to the forest - his cubs need him," he tweeted.

The tiger, who is officially known as number T-24, hit the news after it was reported that it had allegedly mauled a forest guard who had ventured into the tiger reserve's core area on May 8.