At least 26 people were killed in India overnight in separate rain-related incidents, including a freak electrocution of 15 people who had gathered to protest the death of another person who died earlier for the same reason.

Rains have battered India since the start of the annual monsoon season in June, and flooding and landslides have killed scores of people.

Official reports said at least 11 others were injured in the electrocution accident in the Chamoli district of the northern state of Uttarakhand.

The caretaker of a river project site died after touching a railing, and others died subsequently due to the same reason.

The Indian Express newspaper on Thursday reported several people also suffered "serious burn injuries".

Uttarakhand's chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami called the incident "heartbreaking".

Chamoli's top district official Himanshu Khurana told the AFP news agency that an inquiry was underway into the cause of the accident. The dead included at least four security officers.

In the western state of Maharashtra, at least 10 people were killed after a landslide triggered by heavy rains smashed into their village, officials said Thursday.

Rescue teams were battling lashing rain in the remote, hilly and forested Raigad district, with people scrambling at mounds of earth and rubble.

Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra's deputy chief minister, said 10 people had died in the landslide, which overwhelmed the village overnight.

"More than 200 people reside there, we have rescued about 70 people so far -- out of those, 21 are injured," Fadnavis said on Thursday.

Police officer Harish Kalsekar told AFP that nearly 50 people were feared still buried under the debris.

"It is raining, and the terrain is hilly, so heavy equipment can't be moved there," Kalsekar said.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said the priority was "to evacuate people from the scene and treat the injured immediately".

Monsoon rains are vital to replenishing rivers and groundwater, but the deluge also causes widespread destruction every year.

Experts say the growing climate crisis is increasing the number of extreme weather events worldwide, with damming, deforestation and development projects in India exacerbating the human toll.