Most of the fatalities were reported in northern Uttar Pradesh state, India's most populous and one of its poorest states. One-fifth of its population are homeless.

"Five persons including an old beggar woman froze to death overnight. The toll stands at 82," Manoj Srivastava, a government spokesman said in the state capital Lucknow.

The cold weather has also claimed 16 lives in the northern state of Punjab and three more in neighbouring Haryana since the beginning of December.

Winter usually takes a heavy toll around impoverished South Asia. Last year, some 400 people died from cold in Uttar Pradesh alone.