Is Sri Lanka generally considered very clean compared to India?

Yes, most tourists note that Sri Lanka feels cleaner, greener, and more orderly than India, in a way that stands out. The streets are usually without those big rubbish piles, public areas are swept, and there is more visible municipal attention on waste handling.

Even with some shared cultural likeness, Sri Lanka has a far lower population density and firmer expectations around public sanitation. You will seldom run into that heavy metropolitan chaos and persistent pollution you associate with large Indian cities. Still, visitors should not be surprised if they see some littering in hectic commercial zones, along with plastic debris that ends up on unregulated coastal stretches.