At least 25 more people died in India taking the death toll from a cold snap gripping the north of the country to 153, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported Tuesday.Twenty more people died late Monday in Uttar Pradesh state, taking the toll in the province to 95, said the news agency.
"The state government has directed officials to build temporary shelters for the homeless and arrange for big public bonfires (to help people keep warm)," said R.N. Jha, a state administration official.
"There has been some drizzle in parts of Uttar Pradesh ... the cold wave conditions are likely to intensify this week," he said.
Five people, most of them elderly, also died Tuesday in the neighbouring state of Bihar where 22 deaths have already been reported from the state's worst-hit districts, said PTI.
Six people died on Monday in the central state of Madhya Pradesh while 25 deaths occurred earlier in other parts of northern India where millions remained indoors to escape the biting cold, officials said.
New Delhi has been enveloped in dense fog for the past 10 days leading to the cancellation or long delays of flights and trains nearly every day.
Lakes have frozen in the northern districts of Lahoul and Spiti in the lower reaches of the Himalayas.
The winter takes a heavy toll each year in South Asia, where homes are designed to cope with the equally deadly summers.
Last winter's cold spell killed almost 1,400 people, mostly elderly and the homeless.
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